Restoring the Crystal Re-edited
by stefani teee
Summary: X-over between SM, DBZ, and Esca. Usa/Mamo. When the ginzoushou shatters, time, space and other worlds don't matter anymore. An old love resurfaces, and a new one dies.
1. Prologue: The Cause Of Our Dillemma

By: stefani teee a.k.a. Koneko ^Å^

© Tale Spinners inc.

Koneko-chan says!

Anybody who reads any of this should know something first. I don't own Sailor Moon or Dragonball Z/GT or Escaflowne!! NO I DON'T! Shocking isn't it? I wrote the story, the plot's all mine... yada, yada, just exclude the characters from SM, DBZ, and E. Yes, I know that, Usagi's supposed to fall in love with Endymion, and Rei with Jedaite or Yuiichiru, Hitomi with Van... blah, blah, blah. But anyway, none of you better sue. I'm broke at the moment so all you'll get from me is a dime if you're lucky. So if you're smart don't bother.

Hopefully… it's good enough for your tastes. I HAVE touched it up a bit if any of you are returning to read this a second time. (Or third, or fourth, or hundredth! Not that I'm hinting… J) Yes, I know the other one's still up on ff.net so don't mention it. Compare the two for all I care, see how bad one or the other (or both) is.
    
    ~*~*~*~

Restoring the Crystal

(Prologue)
    
    Five female warriors dressed in sailor fukus, a medley of colors, stood in a straight line facing off against an ugly, drooling, *slimy* youma. Each girl represented a specific planet, all except the blonde leader in the middle. She represented no known planet. She represented the most important of all… to them at least. The moon. Sailor Moon and her senshi had arrived. She stood there for a minute, tall and regal. Then, "I am Sailor Moon, the champion of love and justice!" as she said this, she began making different poses, time stopping as she did so, freezing the youma in its tracks. She ended by saying, "And in the name of the moon, I shall punish you!" Obviously, despite her heroic efforts to look sophisticated when doing this, a backdrop of stars, moons, sparkles, and various discus-like satellites, not to mention a long speech in the middle of the park can look quite ridiculous, no matter what they show on TV. (K: Sure they know about the TV series! Who wouldn't when it's all about them?! Of course… they're not to happy with the showing of their personal (or lack thereof) lives.)

The other four then introduced themselves, also striking different poses as they yelled out their titles.

"I am Sailor Mercury!" yelled Ami. She had short glistening blue hair and her blue sailor fuku warned others that she was truly the Senshi of Ice.

"I am Sailor Mars!" yelled Rei. She had long raven-black hair with highlights of violet, her red sailor fuku pronouncing to the world, the Senshi of Flames.

"I am Sailor Jupiter!" yelled Makoto. She had semi-long hair that would have reached the small of her back had it not been tied up into a ponytail. Her green sailor fuku told of her power as the Senshi of Strength.

"I am Sailor Venus!" Minako, the fourth girl had her blond hair pulled back by a red ribbon, her orange-gold fuku radiated her strength as the Senshi of Love. They were the legendary Sailor warriors, the Inner Senshi.

The youma had been watching them call out and pose, powerless to interrupt until the last words faded into the cold night air. When they finished, it snorted, "My GOD I thought you girls would never stop **TALKING**! I came here for a fight… and if you're not going to give me one, I'll just go and destroy Tokyo to my heart's content." He was more than a youma. Hell, he could TALK. He could say more than his own NAME like most of them do… to the senshi anyway, it was different to actually **understand** a youma. 

"METEORA!!" Then again… 

Apparently his vocabulary was very limited… maybe to those few words. With that being said, the black youma charged at the girls, with lightning fast speed, surprising in the slow-looking youma. Claws tore at the senshi, ripping fukus, hacking strands of hair (that pissed them off as they surveyed the damage of their new split ends) letting them fall to their knees for a moment. And he watched them fumbling for safety pins to hold the fukus together while muttering, "Cheap Sailor fuku material…" to themselves while he buffed his black claws. Then he faced Sailor Moon who backed away a step, before bursting into loud wailing. "WAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I don't wanna do this!!!!" she wailed clutching her wand, "I don't wanna be turned into a scratching post!!"

Sailor Jupiter hauled herself up, wincing at the wounds she'd received, her blood already staining the torn abdomen of the sailor fuku. "You're going to pay, you hear that? Supreme… Thunder!!!" The little lightning rod thingy appeared from her tiara and the obvious display of **lightning**[1] crackled and blasted itself towards the youma. The youma looked quite bored as seemed to grab the lightning ball and toss it into the sky. Later, scientists would wonder at the sight of a ball of lightning flying from the earth, impacting into the moon and creating a sizable crater. Jupiter barely had time to curse when Meteora walked up to her and quickly hog-tied and gagged the green-clad giant. (K: *Shrug* Hey, she is tall. And Jupiter fans, I don't hate her.) 

"Let me try," Mars leapt up, "Burning Mandala!" An even stronger black one spat out by her adversary engulfed the enormous fireball. It hurtled straight towards her with hard impact. Mars crumpled to the ground, groaning from the burns on her body. (K: Ow… talk about having your own power turned against you…) She fell, lying very, very still.

"Let's double-team it, Mercury!" Venus told her. (K: She's smarter than she looks, all you people who think blondes are ditzes.) "Crescent…" began Venus. "Shabon…" also began Mercury. "Beam!"

"Spray!" they both shouted their final words, completing their attacks at the same moment, blue ice magic spiraled around the beam of pure love energy. 

"METEORA!!!!!" growled the youma, his sharp, knife-like claws elongated, slicing right through their energy, the chain's links broke, smashed and disappeared, the blue ice magic destroyed, becoming shards that instantly melted, none touching the youma. With a flick of his wrist, his claws swiped a pathway through the air, the force of his blow carrying further than his actual hand, ripping the sailor fukus of the two senshi, and across the skin beneath. Blood appeared in horizontal lines and spilled down, dyeing their fukus an unnatural crimson. The fell back, their hands grasping their wounds, dyeing their white gloves the same shade. They struggled to stand but another blow from the immensely strong youma knocked them backwards, sending them flying into the trunks of two trees. They didn't move again.

"METEORA!!!!" the tone of the youma could be safely dubbed as mocking. The youma finally faced Sailor Moon, who had been running from one of her fallen comrades to another until Venus and Mercury fell. She turned, her eyes filled with tears. "HOW DARE YOU!" she shrieked, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO THEM?!" she yelled, bringing out her Spiral Moon Wand. "You'll pay for this," she spat, "my friends are all I have left! I CAN'T EVEN DEPEND OF **LOVE** NOW!!" she yelled, betraying her grief and taking a firm stance, she chanted the words that would begin her most powerful attack. "MOON HEALING ACTIVATION![2]" she channeled her energy at the youma. The youma looked on, unafraid. "METEORA!" holding up both hands, he let the pink energy hit him in a dead-on blow, he seemed to push and, it suddenly shot into the opposite direction, straight back at Sailor Moon, aiming for one thing. 

She gasped as she felt her broach lift up, as if to shield her with its magic. But, as it did so, the full force of her energy… and the youma's slammed into the broach, destroying it completely… a bright light erupted… and the ginzoushou inside it… shattered into nothing but bits of dancing light. She knew then this was no youma from the Dark Kingdom, this youma wasn't even from Earth or anything close to it. It held power, and the obviousness of this should have struck her in the beginning. Seven flashes of light erupted from her mangled broach, shooting into the sky and becoming nothing but flickering stars for moments before vanishing into the night sky. The ginzoushou was gone, the Rainbow Crystals missing.

Time stopped suddenly, Sailor Moon found herself bathed in a warm red light as she and her fallen comrades were transported into a shimmery, cloudy floor. Usagi, had de-transformed without her broach. She instantly knew where she was, at the gates between dimensions, where Sailor Pluto guarded the Gates of Time. Her friends of the outer senshi would be so disappointed in her, after they'd trusted her as their queen. 

Sailor Pluto appeared, pushing back her dark green hair away from her face, fixed her garnet eyes on the resurrected Lunarian Princess. In her hand, she held her lavender-colored key staff. 

Usagi looked towards Sailor Pluto dazedly and asked, "What happened?" Pluto smiled calmly, although the situation was desperate, and replied. "The youma you were fighting was too strong. The Crystal shattered with the energy you were exerting combined with the youma's dark energy. You had no chance against it…" How like Pluto, always the blunt one.

"B-but what can I do? I can't fight it now! I don't have a clue of what to do Setsuna-san!" Usagi whimpered, her big blue eyes beginning to fill with tears and Pluto immediately continued talking to prevent a flood. Forcing an unconcerned smile she said, "In that dimension and time-frame you can't, but I can transport you to a time where you can and also where you can gain the Imperial Silver Crystal back in your own dimension. When you do get there, you will have to train hard as well, to raise the power level you have so you can beat that youma. But you must go alone… the others will follow soon enough when they are stronger. Are you brave enough to attempt this?"

Usagi, thinking of her friends suddenly looked determined. "After Mamo—ru-san left me… all I have left are my friends and my family. I can't let them live like this. I'll go." Pluto noted the despair in the face of the other girl's. "Be warned, you have gotten used to the immense power of the ginzoushou in this dimension. Don't forget that this ginzoushou is the one that still allows you to use any of your magic in the other dimension. Those fragments are the Rainbow Crystals but in that dimension, they will merge with something much like the Rainbow Crystals called the Dragon balls. Find these mystical objects and you will surely be able to retrieve your crystal… and a wish… who knows? Maybe, you're destined to make Mamoru-san fall in love with you again? Or maybe it'll be for someone else." Pluto swung her staff over the Gates of Time, opening it. Sailor Moon walked into the glowing light, and stepped into oblivion.

~*~*~*~

Welllllllll… first chapter done. All of you have GOT to love me for fixing it. Come on, it was my first fanfic and I know it was lame… just be patient okay? I'll fix it all soon enough! Patience! Patience… (yeah right, screw patience, I don't care okay? You'll find this up as soon as I figure out how to replace this with the other one without erasing all my wonderful reviews!!! oceangirl168@hotmail.com okay? And yes, it is set in First Season with obvious changes with the relationship between the Inners and Outers.

[1]= Why in the world do they use **thunder** when what appears is lightning? How about 'Lightning… Crash!'? It works much better in my opinion… and it fits a bit more than the other…

[2]= I have completely forgotten whether or not this is what she says in Japanese. I myself only saw First Season in English dub, here in Canada.


	2. Chapter 1: The Moon Meets The Saiyans, T...

(Chapter One)

"Ahhhhhh!!!" Usagi terrified screams pierced the silence of the Black Forest. She plummeted from the heavens screaming, "Heellpp me!!!!!!!"

And something stopped her free-fall. She looked up and saw a handsome, but concerned face. His face was battered with bruises and his clothing was torn almost to shreds. But he'd saved her, and she was more than thankful. One more of her wishes was granted (to take a nap, **I** think) and she fainted dead away.

When she awoke, she found herself in a strange bed and sat up. "Ow!" she cried. Her whole body ached, especially her head. Reaching up, she found her hair a mess, her school uniform wrinkled and one of her shoes were missing. (K: But with the way she loses that thing that's not really unusual.) She looked around and wondered where in the world she was. A door to her left opened and she turned. "Whoa, you're awake!" a guy was standing in the doorway, he was surprised, obviously. Usagi jerked in surprise and was overwhelmed by pain. She fell to the floor. (K: *sigh* I know, I know… she seems pathetic. But then, put yourself in her place and then see if you don't wail.)

"Who are you? Where am I?" Usagi was in a panic and in pain, close to tears. 

"Hey, watch out, you'll hurt yourself! Uh, okay, that's not going to calm you down… my name's Goku… I promise I won't hurt you, okay? Okay? Come on, stop crying…" the big man looked awkward at the scared female. It's not unusual, those of the male population usually **don't** know what to do in those situations. 

The man walked towards her and held out his hand. Usagi looked into his face and saw that he had a very kind expression on his face despite his more… intimidating appearance (K: Come on think about it, with muscles as huge as that, anyone would freak at first sight). She reached for his hand and he helped her up. She was back on the bed and was wearing a look of complete confusion, even though the panic had receded. (K: A little.)

The door opened again and a young woman walked into the room, she saw Usagi sitting on the bed and looked happy. "Oh, good, you finally woke up!" Serena stared and asked, "Who, are you?" 

"I'm ChiChi, and **that's** my husband." and pointed her thumb over her shoulder at Goku. Serena turned, took a good look at Goku… and laughed. "What did you **do** to your hair?" she asked trying not to giggle, for Goku's hair was pitch black and stuck out in explosive spikes. He shrugged, "I was born with it."

"And I wouldn't talk Odango!" came a voice from the door. Usagi whirled around to the source of her familiar nickname.

In the doorway stood a guy. "Who are you?" she asked a little surprised at the nickname. "I'm Gohan. **He** is my dad. **She** is my mom. You are a stranger in the Black Forest. Now here's a question from me. Who the hell are you?" Serena bristled but stayed calm. "My name's Tsukino Usagi." Her she'd slipped her hand to her… more mangled red bow on her uniform when she felt a familiar hard and smooth surface. "The crystal! I can be Sailor Moon again! I can be a Sailor senshi again!" she squealed jumping up and down in ecstasy when she noticed everyone staring and shut her mouth. 

"Uhh… yeah… okay. Did you hit your head somewhere before Dad caught you? (K: *rolls eyes* Like what? A cloud?) Who, or what is Sailor Moon?" Gohan asked unbelieving. Usagi squealed, slapping her mouth shut. "Oh no! I wasn't supposed to say that! You could be bad guys!" Goku shrugged, "If we'd been bad guys you'd have been dead by now. Usagi nodded slowly… "Okay… but who I am is kinda complicated to explain… I'll give you a visual…" And she took out her locket and held it up crying, "Moon… Prism… Power! Make-up!" (K: I forgot the actual words so the dub should do…) There was a brilliant flash of multi-colored light from her and they all covered their eyes. When they looked at her again, they looked up at her again, she had on different clothing and a slightly different appearance, the loose hair that had come out of her odangos was gone and so was all her pain. She was wearing a white body suit and a blue mini-skirt. She had on high red boots that went up to just below her knees. She looked strong, unbeatable, and invincible.

"Uhh… am I interrupting anything?" a voice came from the famed doorway. Everyone whipped around and stared at the handsome young man in the doorway. He blushed and stared at the unfamiliar face of Sailor Moon. "Should I go or something? And uh, who are you?" The last question asked of Sailor Moon. 

The pig-tailed girl answered the question, "I am Sailor Moon, and I stand for love and justice. I fight any evil in my world and destroy it in any form… who are you?" the young man with the lavender-colored hair and the warm blue eyes answered her. "Trunks, and so you're saying, that you fight evil in your world? In a miniskirt? And how many guys know of you?" he snickered. Sailor Moon turned red to the roots at the implied insult and she shot back, "And how many girls fall for the cheap hair-dye?"

"Hey! My hair's real! It's anything's fake, it's your implants!"

"I DON'T HAVE IMPLANTS!" 

Gohan had been silent along with the rest of his family during Usagi and Trunk's dialogue/argument/verbal war. _Whoa! She's the first girl I've ever seen that hasn't been swooning over Trunks! She's actually **arguing** with him! Hmm… maybe she's not as much a ditz as I first thought she was… _he thought, _wait, what am I thinking, I hardly even know who she is! I can't judge her yet! But still… she is pretty._ "Son? Gohan? GOHAN!" Goku's voice brought him back to the present. "Say, what? Huh? Sorry, I just zoned out for a minute." Goku smiled, "I can't see how." He gestured to the pair still verbally sparring and smiled, "It's been awhile since Trunks met his match in insults." Gohan had to laugh.

Meanwhile Trunks and Usagi had gone from physical insults to insults about fighting techniques. (K: Though I can't see how. Neither of them has seen the other's fighting skills!) 

"Hey, we're good fighters, I could whip your butt any day!" (K: I hate to say it, but not true.) Trunks snorted, "I doubt that, and anyway who's the **we're**? Don't tell me there's more of you?" Usagi stopped short and she gasped, "Oh no, I forgot all about them!" she jammed her hand into the folds of her pleated skirt and from some hidden pocket, what looked like a small calculator appeared. Pressing a few buttons, a fuzzy picture of Pluto's face appeared. "Setsuna-san? I got here okay, how are the others?"

The face looked haggard and tired already, "Not very good. Only Mars is coming close to waking up. The others are still unconscious." Sailor Moon slumped, sitting down on the bed slowly. "Are you sure? They're not even **awake** yet?" The image of Pluto shook her head; "The others are taking care of them. They just came back from the 30th century." Sailor Moon took a deep breath of extremely needed air and nodded slowly. "Then… thank you, for taking care of them." Pluto smiled one last time, "I've stopped time in the 20th century and it will remain frozen in time until I let time run in its stream again… please hurry. Good luck, and by Mare Serenitas be—" her face dissolved suddenly into a blank screen and Sailor Moon gasped at the sudden tingling of a **very** high, energy source. It was a disturbing feeling. And she wasn't the only one who felt it. All but ChiChi froze as the sudden feeling of any unimaginably high ki could be felt. Sailor Moon looked up to see all of their tensed faces. "Don't tell me… that you felt it too?" she asked softly and more than a little worried.

"Yeah…" said Goku as he looked around trying to find where the source was coming from. But it seemed to have vanished. Sailor Moon bit her lip and she all but started to cry again before she whispered, "I think it's after me…" Though she had no psychic powers whatsoever, she remembered this feeling. It was from a while ago, but she still remembered. It was back when she first became Sailor Moon. Back then, she had thought that all it was, was a feeling that 'something seems weird'. The air had seemed charged with energy. It wasn't as strong now, but she remembered it. And remembered it well. How could she not? She'd died.

Gohan looked at the strange girl and he could see her face hardening, becoming serious, as she seemed to think over something. She looked down at the calculator-like thing and kept pressing buttons to no avail. It was dead. "Dammit!" she swore under her breath. So that was what that… presence had done. It'd severed the magic link between senshi. She was alone in this strange world.

She shoved the thing back into her skirt, (K: Where I don't know… do they have hidden pockets or something of the sort?) "Well… um… thank you for saving me… I won't bother you anymore." She said softly, all anger gone, as she looked young, tired and scared again. And she looked like she was beginning to cry.

Being the intuitive guy he was, Trunks began a teasing argument, hoping to cheer her up at least. "What? Running away already? I'm still standing Odango, didn't you say you were going to win in a battle?" 

"Don't call me that!" she yelled, eyes blazing again. She had a soft point about her hair and only her closest friends could call her that without getting pulverized… most of the time. "You're on!"

Now the rest of them came alive again. ChiChi first of course, "Hey! Now wait just one moment! I am not allowing you to fight anyone yet! You were practically dying a few minutes ago! Trunks! Don't do anything or I'll get your **dad** to come here and beat your ass into the ground!" cried ChiChi. Trunks and Sailor Moon both visibly flinched. ChiChi could be really intimidating when she had to.

~*~*~*~

Meanwhile…
    
    "Augh…" the sailor senshi groaned as she sat up slowly, her head spinning. "Did anyone get the license plate of that truck?" she muttered under her breath. Wait a minute… where was she?" She blinked and stared around herself again. Pluto rushed over to her. "Oh, thank goodness," she sighed with relief, "You're the first to wake up. No one else yet…" Mars shook her head to clear her head and then stared blankly at Pluto. "Huh? Who are you? Where am I? **WHO** am I?" she asked close to tears. Pluto's was taking on a look of startled understanding… if she had been anyone else, she would've groaned outright. "You're Sailor Mars. A monster back on Earth beat you and the other Inner Senshi. You are here at the Time Gates while the others are recovering…" Mars stared at her… and suddenly she did something she would never would have done before… She started screaming her head off. "**WHAT**?! You mean I'm not even on Earth anymore? Who's Sailor Mars? Who're the Inner Senshi?" she cried in panic. Pluto's garnet eyes closed momentarily. _This is **not** my day… _She then went to the task of calming down the panicked girl that was acting more like a frightened three-year-old than a mature Sailor Senshi.

~*~*~*~

Back in the Black Forest…

Gohan sighed. Despite the truce between Sailor Moon and Trunks on not **physically** fighting, he'd been given a sample of how a blonde **could** fight back (verbally) with a saiyan. And a smart-aleck saiyan at that. _Do they ever run out of breath?_ Finally he decided to stop it. "Let's stop this alright? It's getting tiring." Trunks grinned… he was actually having fun. "And stop this interesting conversation? Are you crazy?" (K: Hmm… I'll have to personally deign them both insane. Insults never made number one on my 'Interesting Conversations'

Sailor Moon, who was sitting on the bed grinned too. "It actually feels more at home than ever…" she said a little shyly. "I always used to fight with Shingo about everything…" Gohan groaned, "You are a strange girl if you miss sibling fights." Sailor Moon nodded only half-listening, she was getting tired. She'd been Sailor Moon for a while… it was starting to take its toll on her, especially with the ginzoushou weakened in this dimension. As both of them were staring at her, she stood up a little wearily. Taking out her locket, she held it up muttering, "De-transform." As the fuku disappeared into ribbons for moments before her school uniform appeared on her body again. She found both Trunks and Gohan fumbling for tissues to fend off the oncoming nosebleeds.

Goku walked into the door and announced that it was time for dinner. Usagi kind of shrank back while the others headed for the door… she wasn't even supposed to be here. She should be find those… Dragonball things and the Rainbow crystals right now… Gohan turned and found her trembling. "Hey, aren't you coming?" he asked in a soft and comforting voice. Usagi nodded meekly, and gave Gohan a weak but quite a nice smile.

He went over and took her small hand in his and then led her towards the others who were already eating and got her a chair next to his and Trunks'. Trunks smiled at the petite girl and whispered to her, "You've entered the Spanish Inquisition, you know that?" Usagi blinked, "What's an 'inquition'? Who's Spanish? I don't even know how to speak Spanish! I can barely manage my English verbs! You're doing this on purpose right?! You're trying to kill me! This is a plot to make me go back to school!" sending both Gohan and Trunks into table-pounding laughter while the rest looked on with great sweatdrops on the side of their heads.

ChiChi made an effort to strike up a conversation after Gohan and Trunks had… calmed down. "So what year did you come from? You aren't from this time." She said bluntly. Usagi nodded, looking more careless than she actually felt. "Yeah, you're right I'm not. I'm from 2002. Tokyo, Japan." (K: Happy New Year!)

"So… I guess asking if you know anyone around here is out of the question…" joked Goku casually in between bites. Usagi cocked her head, "What year is it?"

"2781." Usagi choked on her orange juice and Trunks pounded on her back helpfully as she coughed. "For real?!" she gasped looking up at him. "Yeah, for real." Usagi didn't seem much fazed. Instead, she looked curious. "So… is anything very different?"

"I wouldn't know. I wasn't alive in 2002." Gohan replied.

"HA! So I'm older!"

"18. How old are you?"

"16… oh well, I was born earlier." She said to comfort herself and laughed as she thought of how ridiculous that sounded, even to her.

"Where's your time capsule stored?"

"Time… capsule?"

"Didn't you come here in a time machine?"

"Uh… no, I went through the Time Gate. Granted, the descent would have killed me, but… I could never tinker with machinery. I'd probably blow it up before I turned it on!"

"So I guess the thing with the 'dumb blonde' existed way back in your time right?"

"'Way back in **MY** time'?! What, you think I've gone senile already?!" she paused pondering the question. "What does 'senile' mean anyway?" that made the entire table crack up as she looked up at the question mark flashing above her head.

"Why use it if you don't know what it means?"

"I don't know! It's something my mom yelled at me when I started complaining…" she shrugged, getting it out her mind. She looked down at her plate, empty of course. She was Tsukino Usagi after all.

Finally, after the meal was done, both Trunks and Gohan were about to leave. Usagi looked up at both of them curiously. "You mean… you guys don't live here too?" Gohan laughed, "Are you kidding? We're roommates over at the other side of here, nearer to the city. I've got classes, Trunks' got work to go to. (K: Don't ask me, I've somehow merged GT Trunks with Z Gohan ~when he's a teenager~) Usagi shrugged, "I don't know. I go to school… high school anyway, and I still live with my parents." Gohan grinned, "Yeah, well, I'm in first-year college."

Usagi looked horrified. "Even in this time there's still COLLEGE?!"

"I'm guessing you don't like school."

"Are you KIDDING?! Seeing friends, great, go to the mall. But to willingly be submitted to SCHOOL?! That's only what Umino-kun or Mercurius-san, maybe even Ami-chan to a certain extent, do! Not me!"

Now as she rattled off the names of the well-known geniuses (to us anyway), the others were looking rather confused at what she was spouting. She finally stopped and shrugged, "They're school geniuses."

"I… see."

Her broach suddenly heated under her fingertips and she literally jerked as the others stiffened, feeling a dark ki. "Oh kami, they're coming again!" whispered Usagi as she readied herself for what she KNEW would turn out with a drooling, female youma. (K: They always turn out female don't they? If I weren't so nice, I might agree with Kamille's point saying Naoko was a leeeeetle sexist.)

A sudden crash outside made them all turn to the window where a tree had fallen, the trunk still smoldering due to being unceremoniously ripped in half, and shot through with flames. Usagi shot to her feet, just like everyone else, and not knowing where the door was, (K: and unwilling to find herself in a broom closet if she should attempt to find one) followed everyone else.

She yelled out her henshin words, bringing out the Sailor Soldier persona and her moon wand appeared in her hand. She was the first one to reach the youma, (K: surprising considering her company… and her footwear) and she faced off with the youma, wearing an airy, white dress, with little flowers tied in her hair, and an adorable little face, in other words, the perfect face of innocence. This made Sailor Moon stop and look around for the youma, the ones who were always yelling and spitting and drooling and terrorizing. This girl was simply staring at her and smiling while little birds flitted down onto her shoulders and a little puppy frolicking beside her. (K: Anyone ever play the Sega Dreamcast game with Capcom against Marvel? The little red/blue riding hood girl? Heh, talk about looks can be deceiving!)

The girl suddenly walked up to Sailor Moon laughing and throwing flowers into the air. Gohan, who was standing beside her reached up to catch one to look at carefully but Sailor Moon jerked him back. "Don't touch them!" she hissed as she aimed her moon wand at the girl who was staring at her now… with a hint of deviousness in her eye. Goku was eyeing the girl closely, and ChiChi was eyeing her husband closely. She broke his concentration by slapping him upside the head. "Do you HAVE to gawk at other women in front of me?!"

"But I—"

"NO BUTS!"

"But, she—"

"I don't care! NO BUTS!"

Goku looked helplessly at Gohan and Trunks. Sailor Moon on the other hand took things… into hand. Literally. She ran up to her, dodging the little flowers falling from the air, which were beginning to create enormous scorch marks on the ground that they landed on. She grabbed the girl's bouquet, flinging it into a nearby tree before wincing as the entire thing burst into flames. She winced at the sudden scorch marks on her own hands but she ignored them for the time being. She always waited to whine afterwards. She held her wand out at arm's length in front of the girl's face. "You're moondust!"

"?" the girl didn't say a word, just gave a questioning look and giggled. She picked a rose from a bush that suddenly bloomed between the two of them and the entire thing suddenly changed into a very sharp-looking rose sword… she smiled innocently again before attacking, as dainty on her feet as she seemed but just as fast. Moon found herself using her wand for parrying purposes only as she didn't have enough time to aim when the girl was directly in front of her with a sharp and pointy thing. She winced as she looked at her wand… surely it wasn't meant for such usage… but it remained as it always was, smooth, pretty and… well… plastic-looking.

Hurriedly, as she saw in the corner of her eye that both Gohan and Trunks both had some power ball things in their hands and trying to aim. Well… she would get that thing to stop and she wouldn't let her be destroyed. "Moon… Tiara… Magic!" she yelled, pulling off the golden circlet thing (K: How does that stay **on**?!) as it became a glowing discus. She threw it at the youma, stunning it and breaking the sword as a bonus. "Moon… Healing… Activation!" she yelled as the normal display of moondust, crescent moons, and crystal copies flew around the girl who began screaming before changing back into a more familiar-looking girl to both Gohan and Trunks. A certain Videl from Gohan's college. Gohan took one look at the girl and gave a strangled gasp, running towards her. He held her carefully in his arms and looked into her unconscious face. "What did you do to her?!" he yelled at Sailor Moon who had a defensive look on her face. "I just saved her!" he looked down at the girl's face who was already coming too. She opened her eyes and after a moment's blinking, she recognized the face of her friend since early high school. "Gohan?"

"Hey… you okay?" she nodded holding her head. "Yeah… I was walking across the campus… and then some ghostly woman seemed to fly across it freaking out the entire student body. It stopped in front of me and… I don't know… did something."

"She turned you into a youma." said a soft voice, and as Videl turned to face Sailor Moon. "Pardon me?"

"She turned you into a youma, forcing you into… I think Mercury called it a 'concentrated body of evil'."

"I see…" Videl shook her head to clear it and smiled. "Well, I'm alright now. I'll just head on home… okay?" she didn't seem too shaken. Gohan looked at her carefully, "Are you sure?" she smiled, he was **so** protective, over everyone. "I'll be fine." And to Sailor Moon's amazement, she leaped into the air and flew out of sight quickly.

__

Gohan was extremely protective of that girl, thought Sailor Moon to herself, _I wonder who she is?_ And she could **fly**! "Wow… that would be so cool to do that." she breathed as she watched Videl disappear from view. Trunks, standing right beside her grinned, "Well… we **could** teach you but I doubt you'd be able to learn."

Usagi's suddenly filled with tears as she looked at them about to burst into tears. "You… you think I can't do it?! How, how **COULD** you!" she sobbed, and she really **did** burst into tears. Gohan, Trunks and Goku stood their with sweatdrops trailing down the sides of their heads while ChiChi purposely got up and smacked Gohan upside the head before doing the same to Trunks. "You, are a complete baka." She told him before turning to Sailor Moon. "And you can stop crying because I assure you my son nor his friend **won't** be making any such rude comments anymore." She said giving a warning glance to her son.

"But I didn't do anything!"

"You didn't tell Trunks to shut up!"

Gohan sighed, defeated. It was impossible to argue with his mother. ChiChi smiled, "Now, do you have a place to go, Usagi-san?" 

"No… I don't know **anyone** in this time. I came here to find the… the… Dragon somethings."

Gohan froze. Actually everyone froze. Of course they knew what she was talking about… but how would **she** know about them?! "What do you want them for?" asked Gohan tersely. She shrugged, "I need to find the Rainbow crystals… and they've merged with the Dragonballs or something and I need to get them back. Do you know how many Dragonballs are there?"

"Ten."

"**NANI**?! I may be an adango-atama but I can count to ten… seven is **not** the same as ten!"

"There are ten." Sailor Moon sat down on the charred grass, and began to think… "I don't know what I'm supposed to do." She finally announced to them all after a minute of profound thinking. "Well… do you have a wish you want to have come true that you'll ask the dragon?"

"The dragon? There's a dragon?! What am I supposed to do with the dragon?! AM I SUPPOSED TO FIGHT A DRAGON?!"

"No, but the Dragonballs can grant a wish to the person who finds them all and brings them together."

"Ah… well, sure I have wishes but I need to get my crystal and I need to get home and make sure my senshi are okay!"

"Do you need help?"

She eyed them hopefully, "Do you have them?"

"Er, no…"

"Do your friends have them?"

"No…"

"Then how can you help me?!"

"We know how to **find** them." Sailor Moon groaned. Finding. Which meant she couldn't just lug the entire package together and get her crystal back anytime soon.

"You mean I'm going to be going on a needle-in-a-haystack hunt?"

"Well, we have our devices…"

"So you'll help me?!"

"We could…"

"ARIGATO!" she squealed jumping Trunks and hugging him ecstatic. He looked shocked for about two seconds before smiling and hugging her back lightly and putting her back onto the ground.

"So… you don't have a place to stay?" the still sailor-suited super-heroine shook her head. "Well… she could stay with us…" said Trunks doubtfully to Gohan.

ChiChi's eyes widened. "NO she is NOT! I will not have you two troublemakers living with a young girl like Usagi-san! And especially not unsupervised!"

"But MOM! We're not planning anything!"

"I don't care!"

"Then let **me** be the supervisor." Said a voice from somewhere. Sailor Moon recognized that voice… and she recognized the blue-black cat that was slinking towards ChiChi. "LUNA!" she squealed pouncing on the dignified feline guardian. "A cat? Where'd it come from?"

"She's **my** cat! Luna, why on Earth are you here?!"

"I was sent here as well Usagi-chan." The cat said a little put off with her dignity being considerably lessened with the sailor soldier cuddling her in her arms.

"Kami, the cat can **talk**?!"

"Yes, this cat can talk." replied Luna haughtily as she looked at the outspoken Trunks with disdain. "And I doubt I am the only one. I met a **flying** talking cat earlier on my travels around this strange place. Puar I think it's name was."

"You went to **my** place?!"

"I do not know whether or not it was **your** place, but there was a very disinterested man there who was staring at me before this blue-haired woman dragged him inside."

"That would me my folks."

"Then it certainly was your place I had to get past." The cat turned to ChiChi. "I believe **I** can be a supervisor as well as a guardian if I must. I already have to my duty to Usagi-chan, I would be willing to watch over her in the stead of anyone else."

ChiChi nodded slowly. "Okay… well, uh, go ahead…" she said shakily before fainting into Goku's arms mumbling something about 'talking cat' and 'must still be dreaming'.

The sun slowly sank towards the horizon coloring the sky with beautiful reds, golds, and pinks. Gohan and Trunks decided it was time to go. They said good-bye, and then got ready to fly. "Wait! Oh come on, get back here! I can't fly!" Usagi called as they floated off the ground. "We… have a problem." 

"Hey, no problem at all. I'll carry her." offered Gohan and looked at Usagi. She fidgeted and said nervously, "Okay, but PLEASE don't drop me… if you do, I swear I'll come back to haunt you." Gohan laughed and so did Trunks. "If he drops you, I'll catch you." Trunks promised although he **did** accept the light burden of a certain crescent-mooned cat. Gohan picked her up and held her close. The closeness made her cheeks redden… just a little bit. They jumped into the air and flew off into the sky. 

~*~*~*~

The Outer senshi were having no luck with those of the Inner planets. They were baffled with what had happened to the girls. They didn't know them very well but they were the guardians of the Neo-Queen. If anything should happen to them… Mars was still hysterical and while the others had awakened and although they had their memories still, they were too badly injured. Even with their amazing healing abilities, it would take some time. 

"Get me off, get me off, get me off! I WANT OUT OF HERE!" Mars was still shrieking in hysterics. Michiru and Haruka were watching over the rest of the girls. And Hotaru was helping Setsuna watch over Mars. "She will have to do her duty soon enough…" sighed Hotaru brushing her violet-black hair out of her eyes. Setsuna nodded. "This girl is to find a king, who'll rebuild his empire." She said her eyes landing on the Time Key beside her…

~*~*~*~

Another chapter finished! Email me. I like email. oceangirl168@hotmail.com okay? Ja ne!


	3. Chapter 2: Usa-chan Comes 'Home', Rei-sa...

(Chapter 2)

"Wow, this place is amazing!" exclaimed Usagi, gaping in awe as they landed in front of the big… apartment building. At least, it **looked** a little like a twentieth-century apartment building. There were obvious differences, next to the carefully placed glass tubes that varied with different speeds (the slower for elderly and handicapped) and people shooting through them. It was quite easy to look at the interior of the building because it was made almost entirely out of huge sheets of glass. "Come on, Chisaii-chan. Let's go in before you start gaping." 

"Small one?! I am not small! I'm… I'm… just not very tall!"

"But it fits you very well, Usagi-chan." Said a bemused Luna, surprisingly taking Trunks' side of the small argument. They'd had a very nice conversation while flying. Her insertion in the conversation ended the argument with a pouting Usagi as they entered one of the tubes. Trunks pulled out what looked like a very small compact disk and inserted it into a electronic box. A bright light flashed from the panel on the wall, and very soon they were shooting up the tube. 

It didn't take very long to reach the apartment, and Trunks showed Usagi to her room, placing Luna on the bed. "Don't worry about anything. You can't be safer than being with us." he smiled and walked out of the room. Usagi smiled. He was nice for such a smart aleck.

She went around the room examining everything. Then she walked into the adjoining bathroom and smiled. It was small but nice and clean and sparkling. "Surprising… I always thought college guys were supposed to be messy and their apartments like pigsties!" Luna smiled at her charge, "It appears that your new friends aren't your every-day college guys. Most people wouldn't take in a strange girl from another dimension without much questioning. They're quite sure of themselves."

"I'll say."

Luna stretched herself out on the bed before curling up. "I suppose it would be a good idea to take a bath right now don't you think?" she suggested as Usagi found herself doing nothing but staring around the room. "Bath… why not, a bath sounds good." She walked into the bathroom, and began to fill the tub, happy to know she knew **how** to fill the tub.

A knock on the door interrupted her and she walked to the door to find Gohan standing there holding out several towels. "It's better to receive them now than later." He said winking at her before walking back through the living room.

Usagi flushed pink. Luna looked up once and wrinkled her nose disapprovingly and was about to interfere when she remembered all those sleepless nights that Usagi had had. Well, she wouldn't stop her now. A little less pain in that girl's life would be a lot.

Finally, Usagi walked into the bathroom, shut it and sank into the warm sudsy water with a sigh. She stared at the vapor swirling into the air and her thoughts drifted, first to her crystal, then to her friends… then to **his** face. And he was smiling. She reached for it, her fingers dripping, but the image disappeared and all that was left was vapor swirling around her fingers. She leaned against the edge of the bathtub and began to sob. Luna, outside heard and she wished a certain Mamoru Chiba was around so she could sink her claws into his face for what he'd done to her charge.

Gohan in the next room heard and wished he could help her. Trunks, passing through the hallway heard and felt like hugging the girl if only if would make her feel better. Usagi stopped crying with a last choked sob as she suddenly remembered where she was. This was not home, this was a strange place with strange people she didn't even know. She couldn't let them know the depth of her suffering. She just couldn't. She could hide that much from them… childish tears were better to let out than mature, heart-wrenching suffering.

~*~*~*~

"How's the fire-girl?" asked a bemused Haruka.

"She's asleep." Groaned a weary Setsuna, quite rumpled with the continuous, "It's alright, everything's fine, this is only temporary" 's.

"She's worse than a child." agreed Hotaru as she stood there, the little black-swathed nymph could barely be heard, she was always so quiet.

During this discussion, Mars had woken up and after gathering her wits about her, decided to remain silent for a while. She slipped off the small bed and walked quietly, her legs knee-high in the mist that was always there in the Hall. She passed the room where the de-transformed senshi were and walked past quickly. She wanted to go somewhere on **Earth** that she might remember… not this place!

She padded towards a great door. _This might be the way out!_ She thought as she pushed on the doors. They wouldn't open. Growling under her breath in frustration, she examined the door for anything that might open it, finding nothing. Just as she was about to give up, a red light seemed to flow through her hand, stopping at her fingertips as if waiting. She stared at her hand and was about to scream when she realized a symbol on the door was glowing the exact same color. She touched her hand to the symbol and heat seared through her. The door opened without a sound and what she saw was a bright light shining. It seemed almost like sunlight. With only slight hesitation, the girl stepped through, hoping she'd find herself somewhere familiar.

"NO! REI COME BACK!" yelled a voice from behind her. She turned just in time to see that green-haired woman running towards her. "NO!" Setsuna grabbed her key staff as she tried to order that door closed. But a wild magic had overtaken the door and it responded in kind, inverting its power into a swirling vortex. She could see the outlines of the great palace at the center of Crystal Tokyo. The others were running over, and even the Inner senshi were managing to come slowly but steadily closer. "GET AWAY!" she shrieked as she was sucked into the vortex. The Time Wand wrenched from her grasp as she fell through time. The others would follow her, a maniacal laughter pounding in her ears confirmed it. Someone had tampered with the door, not only Mars. Someone wanted them out of the way… and that someone had the Time Staff.

Haruka and Michiru were holding onto one of the pillars for dear life as the other, weaker senshi who could barely stand were bodily hauled through the doors. Hotaru was holding tightly onto Haruka's leg as she tried to hold on her eyes shut tightly. "It's no use!" yelled Haruka as the marble crumbled under her fingers, wrenching them all loose from the column and funneling them into the door. As they fell through time, they could see the light of the door suddenly disappear. The vortex disappeared and the doors slammed shut leaving the Hall of Time empty and quiet again. 

~*~*~*~

"Usagi-chan! Usagi-chan!" Luna meowed as she scratched at the bathroom door. It opened to reveal a schoolgirl Usagi looking down at her cat. "Luna…" she whispered as the cat leaped up into her arms, and with experience, Usagi caught her and hugged the black crescent-mooned cat. "Luna…" she whispered again as her tears came back and she sank down along the wall, holding her cat for comfort.

The cat meowed before she said softly, "You should go to bed now, Usagi-chan… you might feel better in the morning." Usagi looked at her cat before nodding slowly. "Sleep… yes, maybe sleep is a good idea." She whispered as she stood up. As she did, she realized something. She didn't have a **thing** to where other than her school uniform, and **one** shoe. "Luna…? Do you think I could use the Luna Pen?" the cat looked cautious about this sort of thing. "Well… I suppose so. It wouldn't drain you of energy like being Sailor Moon does…"

With the deft movements of long practice, Usagi called the words that changed her school uniform into a silky pajama set with a little white bunny face on one side of the shirt. Slipping into the bed, she looked around for the light switch. And she couldn't find one. "Luna… how do I turn off the lights?" in response, the room was plunged into darkness and Usagi let out a startled yelp before she realized. "Oh… well, that's different." She settled in for a good night's sleep. She'd need it. 


	4. Chapter 3: Two Alternate 30th Centuries....

(Chapter 3)

The next morning, Gohan walked into Usagi's room (quite late in his opinion) to wake her up. He'd already walked in, past the bed, and to the window, opening the curtains when he'd turned around and noticed that the buttons on her pajamas had become undone and he'd had a glimpse of her black lace bra. He gaped for a maximum of two seconds before he rushed out clutching his nose in preparation for the oncoming nosebleed. It was a few minutes later that he came back with a tissue wedged to his nose, stopping at the door and knocking. "USAGI-SAN! Wake up! It's already 11 in the morning!"

The lump in the bed moved and she opened her eyes blearily. "11?! And I'm **awake** at this ungodly hour?! I am going back to sleep." She muttered before slumping back in bed. "God he's almost as bad as Goten…" muttered Gohan as he sighed and banged on the door again. "WAKE UP!"

Usagi's sat up suddenly. "WHAT?!" she bellowed back.

"It's time for you to get UP!" he yelled through the door.

"And I am going to avoid becoming deaf living with you two therefore I'm going to stop this." announced Trunks who'd just walked past the hallway. He entered the room never minding Gohan's repeated efforts to warn him of Usagi's current state of dress. Trunks barged into the room to shake that girl completely awake when he **finally** noticed the state of the pajama top that she'd hadn't noticed earlier. He raised an eyebrow and stared blatantly at her chest before saying, "Hm—nope, they're definitely not implants." Usagi gaped at him before clutching her shirt close and with her small hand curled into a fist, sent him flying into the hallway landing on a stunned Gohan.

Luna appeared from the other side of the bed looking at her disapprovingly. "It is very rude to do that to your host."

"It is very rude to stare at your guest's chest area when they're just waking up, Luna." The cat raised an eyebrow. "Well then, you should have asked me to take a swipe at him. No one would blame the cat." It was enough to make Usagi laugh a she hugged the black cat. "Now… we'll have to find a way to look for those… Dragonball things."

"Do you have any idea how?" asked Luna delicately.

"None at all… but **they** do."

"And should I mention that punching the daylights out of those two guys is not proper for someone asking a favor?"

"Actually, when dealing with this guy, he'll go crazy for anything opposite of the norm." Usagi turned round to face Trunks leaning against the doorjamb. "Hey little girl. Get dressed, our folk's are taking you shopping." He grimaced in distaste at the thought of entering that dreaded place known as 'the mall' where not many men enter willingly. These were places where species of the fairer sex were known to fall victim to the deadly 'bargain-hunting' syndrome which results in hours of counting ceiling tiles while muffled squealing in dressing rooms are heard. Trunks knew this very well and he told Usagi so, which resulted in both the girl and the cat laughing. Hard.

"But… I didn't bring much money… actually, none at all." Trunks raised an eyebrow, "So? All I can tell you at the moment is that you really don't need to okay? Think of it this way, if we ever decide to flash over into your time, you'll give us a tour 'round town too, okay? I consider that payment enough."

She brightened. "SURE! I can show you the arcade, the mall (Trunks winced at this), the Tokyo Tower…" she rattled on a dozen more places that Trunks had read about in history textbooks. (K: At least some of them… an arcade? Probably not.)

"Anyway, come on out to the kitchen when you're ready for breakfast, 'kay? Gohan's trying to be Suzy Homemaker and he's *ahem* attempting to cook breakfast."

"I heard that!" yelled Gohan from the kitchen, wisely deciding not to come in. Trunks shrugged, "Just in case you want a warning." He walked out the door. Just as an explosion came from the kitchen and Gohan was running out of the kitchen holding a spatula, and what appeared to be half-cooked egg sticking to his shirt. "The stove blew up." He announced to Trunks as he stomped to his room to change. "You know… you usually wear an apron." Quipped the violet-haired guy. Usagi laughed. "You know what? I can cook… it might not look good, but it tastes all right… half the time. Just not cookies."

Trunks made a "do what you want" gesture. "You can go right ahead if you want, you know for a fact why there are so many take-out boxes in the garbage can now?"

"Yeah… I was wondering about that."

"Such an unhealthy lifestyle." sniffed Luna as she leaped lightly down to the carpet. "Better than Pretty Kitty seafood treats I'd say." Luna reddened and she turned away. "Thank you, I'd prefer if you didn't rub in the fact that I am a cat."

"Don't worry, I won't… often."

"Usagi-chan…" she said warningly making the blonde hush up. Trunks laughed, stroking the cat's head. The small cat stopped her chiding to purr as he did so. Usagi looked down at her cat in amazement. "Sure you don't get mad at **him**!"

"He did nothing wrong, unlike yourself." The golden child growled but shrugged it off. "Be silent, lowly kitty." She muttered under her breath. The cat narrowed her ruby eyes and glared at her in between purrs as Trunks had resumed stroking her between the ears. He adjusted his burden before shrugging towards the door. "Come on Chisaii-chan, let's get some food into you before we go."

"Go?" she felt an impounding feeling of dread. "You don't mean **school** do you?!" she shrieked almost hysterically. The cat smirked, "It wouldn't do you any harm to learn something."

"I have learned enough for a lifetime, Luna."

"You mean you've learned enough ways to slack off for a lifetime." The blonde glared at her cat for a moment before promptly ignoring her and saying to Trunks. "I'm ready to eat."

"Good, so am I." said a miffed Gohan. "Come on, we're going downstairs to eat. That evil contraption was sent from Hell I believe." He walked in wearing a new black shirt and jeans, plain and simple. Trunks sighed. "It's either fast food, or whatever the hell **he** tries to make."

"I DON'T SEE **YOU** MAKING ANYTHING!" Trunks shrugged, "I'd blow up more than just the stove." Usagi began laughing and grabbing a pen sitting on the dresser and shoving it promptly into a pocket in her blue jeans. She'd already used the pen just a while ago to change her clothes from her comfy 'jammies to what she was wearing now. A pink tee and jeans. That's it. (K: She was away from home, so the normal, stereo-typical, mini-skirted ditz could be laid on hold for at least a while… well, maybe not the 'ditz' part…)

Gohan grinned, glad that at least **someone** wasn't going to be laughing at him for the stove. And who at least agreed with him. "Let's go then. If Hair-dye here is willing, he'll follow."

"HAIR-DYE?! Where did **that** comes from?!" Gohan smirked, "From someone who can verbally banter with a certain smart-alecky saiyan and survive."

Luna leaped gracefully to the floor and flicked her tail. "I quite agree with Usagi-chan when it comes to food… come to think of it, I haven't eaten since before we left home."

"Well then, come along and we'll sneak you in."

"I have to be snuck in?" asked the cat in dismay. She'd known the meaning of 'snuck in' a long time ago. Cramped boxes, book bags, backpacks… all suffered when around Usagi and her friends. "Nah, the owner's quite used to Puar, he won't mind another cat. I just meant sneak another mouth into our table."

Luna sighed in relief as the images of past 'sneaking in' faded away. She followed the two that had already left and Trunks quickly caught up to her in only two steps. Luna could never get over how fast those damn elevator/tube things could go as they sped down towards the lobby floor where a breakfast/lunch/dinner restaurant was open and where they spent most of their meals (as Gohan's lack of culinary talent was obvious).

It was a while later that they headed back to the apartment, with Trunks and Gohan marveling at how much and how fast that petite girl could eat. Luna was hiding her face shamefacedly in the crook of Trunks' arm, as she was quite embarrassed with her charge. Gohan was laughing at the blonde and teasing her lightly and she was verbally bantering with him as they proceeded to enter the apartment. It was just two minutes after Trunks had flopped onto the couch, Gohan had walked off to clear the table and Usagi had bent to inspect the burned and blackened stove that the bell rung. This sent Trunks flying from the couch as if too had been lit on fire. "Oh shit! I almost forgot they were coming!"

"Who?! Who?!" yelled back Serena as she stood up from her observations, staring at the smudge of black that had appeared on her nose due to her poking and prodding the ashy stove. She wriggled her nose to no avail before entering the bathroom to wash it off. "OUR FOLKS!" he yelled back as he attempted to straighten the odds and ends in the living room while Gohan was busy throwing dirty laundry into the closet. Catching Serena's eye, he winked, "We're cleaner than most, but… well, you've met my mom…" Laughing Serena joined him in cleaning as Luna tended to the door.

Perhaps it was unwise of her because she came face to… foot, with the same black-haired man she'd met yesterday earlier on in her travels. He recognized her as well and he glared. Knowing nothing else to do, Luna slunk back before saying weakly, "Come in?" her dignity greatly decreased under the stare of this unfriendly man. She lightly ran back to wherever the others were. "Aww, look what you just did, Dad! You scared the poor kitty!" a pretty blue-haired girl dressed in red suddenly appeared from behind him and held out a hand towards the cat. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…" she crooned. Luna felt mildly offended but she came forward cautiously, saying "The others are preparing for your arrival."

It was surprising the lack of surprise in that girl's face when Luna spoke because she laughed and said instead, "You mean they're shoving everything into everything else before we can see anything?" 

Luna laughed. "Quite."

"So little kitty, you're the one that was walking around our house before aren't you? Daddy said he saw a strange black cat with a crescent moon on its head talking to Puar earlier yesterday."

"Yes… I was trying to find Usagi-chan."

"Usagi… chan?"

A loud crash and a startled yelp as Serena came flying through the open doorway behind the cat and landing flat on her face as Gohan stuck his head out, "Oh god, are you okay?!" Luna sighed resignedly, especially at the strange looks the rest of the troupe (that had accumulated while the conversation had been going on) were giving them. "That's Usagi." She meowed and hid her face in her paws. 

The blue-haired girl laughed and picked up the cat. "My name's Bura, little kitty… do you have a name?"

"Luna."

"Luna… that's a pretty name. Fits you, you little moon kitty." Usagi had looked up at the guests and had scrambled up dusting off her clothes and she was turning quite red. "I'm sorry… I'm a little clumsy." Luna sighed in Bura's arms. "A little?" she muttered to herself.

Trunks' head appeared around the corner. "Hey! Come on in all of you, don't stand at the door." The guests (friends and family members) trouped in and set themselves out in the living room, which had previously been emptied of almost everything so there was enough place for all to sit. Usagi was beginning to become nervous again, she recognized Goku and ChiChi and Goten (whom she'd seen at the dinner table the other day).

Trunks began the long list of introductions. "Everyone, this is Usagi."

"Usagi who?" asked the unfriendly-looking guy before the older-looking blue-haired woman shoved her elbow into his side with a "shhh" sound. "Uh…" stammered Trunks before Usagi saved him. "Tsukino Usagi. Or, what the foreign-exchange student at my school tells me, Serena Thompson in English." She laughed, "Though why he would know my English name is a secret."

"Anyway, this is my mom, Bulma, my dad, Vegeta… Um, Bura, my little sister—"

"Age wise, but I'm way ahead of him in mentality." Cut in the blue-haired girl who apparently had the same way around cats that Trunks did because the black cat was at present curled up on the girl's lap. "(Blah, blah, blah)" (K: You know the Z-gang, think all of them, minus Pan, 18, and Bulma's parents…)

When the "hi" "nice to meet you" and "it's a pleasure" 's were done, they finally got around to heading towards the mall. All males present literally shuddered at the dreaded word. But of course, the semi-violent females always got their way. Including a begging Bura with her father was one of his only weak points. He was putty in her hands.

"Great! Let's go!" yelled ChiChi and Bulma dragging their unwilling husbands by the arm. They were always up for any shopping. Gohan grabbed Usagi's hand and Trunks took Bura's hand. "Come on, we'll take the motorcycles." Bura looked from him to her father and shrugged, "Do you mind, Dad?" she asked. "I don't care." He said gruffly and she smiled before following the violet shock of hair towards the garage down below the lobby. Trunks tossed Usagi a helmet and handed his sister one. When both of them protested, he replied, "I think you'd rather a helmet for a little while, than all your head swirled into a 50's beehive hairstyle." (K: Was it the 50's? Or 60's? Or 70's? Something like that?) Finally, with much grumbling, helmets were donned, seats were secured, and they were off in clouds of dust and screeching tires.

~*~*~*~

The little black-clothed pixie's long eyelashes fluttered open and it took her only a few moments to focus on the bright blue sky above her, and the sensation of someone shaking her gently to rouse her. "Aahhh… my head…" she murmured sitting up and rubbing it. It was still sore. She looked around to see the rest of the Outers, the three Inners and… Princess Chibi-Usa? She sighed, "I believe we've been sent to the 30th century, haven't we?"

"Yes." A grim Setsuna was sitting on a nearby clump of rock, apparently thinking. The lack of the Garnet Key was surprising. "So… you would not be able to send us back?" she asked hesitantly. Setsuna shook her head. "Someone sent us here on purpose, to get us out of their way. That person also took my Staff, so if he or she alters the timeline, I have no way to stop it. Time streams are too delicate to set out of balance…" The little princess smiled softly at the guardian. "Don't worry, Pu. You're safe here at least…"

"But for how long, Small Lady?"

Michiru was leaning over the little flamingo-haired princess. "How did you know we were here?"

"You took me… I mean your future selves took me here. See, they're right there." She pointed behind them and they spun around to face… themselves. As senshi.

The Inners, still wounded were on the verge of collapse, especially with the added shock. "What… what's happened?" murmured a tired Ami, as she looked up at her double's face as she kept pressure on a wound to her side. It was hard to believe how suddenly they were carted off towards the Crystal Palace and towards their healing chamber. The four Outers followed dully. The time streams, the echoes of the wind, the crashing of the waves, and the deathly silence had all changed, almost imperceptibly, but they could sense it. And they were worried.

It was then that a lavender streak flashed by before pausing, revealing it was King Endymion in all his splendor… and worry. "Sailors… the Queen is gone!" he told them, never minding the fact that they were all doubled.

"Neo-Queen Serenity is MISSING?!" gaped Sailor Mars as she stared at her king. "You cannot be serious!"

"I know what happened."

All turned to Setsuna. "The timeline has shifted. Neo-Queen Serenity as she is in this time might not even exist any longer. Right now, she is existing only the shell of present-day Tsukino Usagi."


	5. Chapter 4: 30th Century Mall, Hitchhikin...

(Chapter Four)

"Whoohoo!" whooped Usagi as they sped across a busy intersection. This is the best! She hugged Gohan's waist even tighter as he sped up to pass a car next to him. They spun a 90 degree turn and stopped in front of… the biggest mall Usagi had ever seen. She swore it was the biggest mall in all of creation. They walked in and the women immediately headed towards a fashion boutique with a 90% off sale. They dragged the unwilling males with them. Trunks sighed, he'd known that this would happen…

Gohan of course, was watching in amazement as Usagi, his mom, Trunks' mom, and Bura totally hit it off. He himself had just gotten in, as there had been a little squabble with security about allowing pets inside the mall. Luna herself had coldly assured him that she was no pet and would **not** be damaging any priceless clothes any time soon. They'd been allowed in by the dazed guard muttering, "Oh god… they've really gone high-tech with these micro-chip robots…" Some people are too dense to believe in what's right in front of them. 

But, there they were, squealing over clothes and heads were turning in the direction of the commotion as the salesgirls tried to calm the mad quartet. It didn't do much as they'd all piled into the change rooms, appearing and disappearing and all the while yelling "I'm getting this!", "Definitely!" and "You're **SO** getting that!".

When they were through plundering that store, they finally moved to the next. By this time, all of the male species were thoroughly bored by the 10th store (men never have what it takes to know the joy of shopping) and were becoming extremely impatient. Ever seen Vegeta impatient? If you have, you'll know it ain't a pretty sight. Although… the glimpse of his wife wearing a slinky little black dress made his disposition slightly better…

"Oh my gosh! This is **so** cute!" squealed Usagi as she held up a cute, pink (obviously) little t-shirt. Bulma laughed, "Times haven't changed since you last went shopping, we all know how to find the best bargains for the best clothes!"

"Hey! How about this one!" asked ChiChi holding up a white, shimmering gown. It was beautiful, and they all wondered why on earth would they find such a glamorous gown in such a casual store as the one they were in. Bulma looked at it critically, "You know… it **is** pretty, but I don't think it would look too good on you…" ChiChi made a frustrated noise with her mouth. "It wasn't supposed to be for me… it was supposed to be for Usagi." She said before holding it against the girl. "Try it, and let us see how you look in it!"

"Oh but I—"

"TRY IT ON!" shrieked all three females at once and pushed her steadily into the change room. "Okay! Okay!" she yelled as she closed the door behind her, slipping out of her clothes and changing into the dress, being careful not to rip it. The lack of cream puffs these days had paid off (she ate 20 instead of 80) and she was looking a little slimmer than before.

"Well?! How does it look?!" when it came to shopping, all that 'with age comes wisdom' crap disappeared out the window and they were as young as Bura and Usagi herself. She felt as comfortable with them, as with her friends— No, better not to think of them right now…

"It's okay… I guess…" she stepped out of the change room to appear before the judges. Bura rolled her eyes. "Only someone as pretty as you could make such an understatement and get away with it." For indeed, Usagi looked gorgeous in it, and even the mirrors and lighting (which I assure you were as bad as the fun-house mirrors and hellhole lighting in all change rooms we have now) she looked beautiful.

It was at this point, Gohan and Trunks walked in, assuredly uneasy for venturing into the 'woman's domain'… or the change room where women were apt to say, "I'M BUSY! WAIT A BIT, ALRIGHT?!"

"Mom… Dad's getting impatient with all of y—" the words died on his lips as he spotted Usagi. "Whoa…" muttered Gohan as he stared at her. Maybe it was his imagination, but he thought, that for a moment, he almost see her, perhaps grown a few inches taller, a regal crown on her head, and fabric made in the semblance of wings behind her… she looked like a queen. But with that moment gone, he could see only the golden angel she was, wearing a white dress.

Of course, the guys' reactions were not lost on the four women. Bura came up slyly behind the two guys, nudging Gohan as he'd hadn't stopped staring at Usagi, even as Trunks had regained composure and told her bluntly that she looked amazing. He'd never been one to stint on the compliments. ChiChi was shaking her head with a hand to her forehead and Bulma was laughing. 

"Looks like we have a winner." announced Bulma as she hustled Usagi back in the change room. "We're taking it."

"And that's not **all** we're taking… we've got to find something more everyday for you too!" Trunks laughed as ChiChi joined his mom on the 'Usagi-like clothes' fabric hunt. "And we'll stay and be the critics. We'll be the ones to assure you, no matter what you're wearing, that you look fabulous." Usagi giggled, "Even in a paper sack?"

"Why wouldn't we? It'd be less expensive should you get caught in a contact sport…" he winked roguishly and she turned red. "Quit it. You act like Shingo."

"Shingo huh? Nahh, I make a better **big** brother. I can beat the crap out of all the guys you need me to much easier." Conversation ended there as the other females appeared again, making Usagi repeat the process of take, put on, walk out, turn, listen to "ooh" 's and "ah" 's, walk in, take off, and receive another outfit. When they finally finished their shopping spree, Usagi was exhausted and famished and she voted going to the food court and stuffing herself. "Yeah right, any more food intake with you and you'll never be able to fit those clothes again!" teased Trunks.

Gohan finally spoke up, "She always looks nice in what she wears." before he turned red and didn't speak anymore. 

It was at the end of the day, and the sun was already beginning to set that their thoughts turned to the evening meal. "Ah-wow, I'm beat." Yawned Usagi after the massive shopping spree. And massive it had been. She'd been a little embarrassed about the money thing, but with their expansiveness over their own shopping, she was a little less tense over it. She reached into her pocket… "OH NO!" she shrieked stopping in mid-step just as they were about to leave the mall. "What?!" asked Goku looking around for anything suspicious. "My star locket! It's missing!" she turned and ran back in. "Her locket? How could she find a locket in **there**?!"

"Well… might as well help her." replied Gohan walking back in. Trunks was about to follow when Bura grabbed her shirt sleeve with a slightly mischievous look on her face.

Gohan was quite right, although the mall crowds had thinned, it was impossible to see much of the floor, it was even more impossible to believe that some Good Samaritan had found that glinting gold star locket and turned it in.

Why that thing was still special to her she didn't know. She'd been heartbroken after that guy had split with her and she'd tossed everything else of his into the attic. But not that. She kept that with her always. Probably because she wanted to believe in something that would probably turn out to be false. That their future might actually end in Crystal Tokyo, a loving daughter, and a realm of goodness. 

Finding herself in the deserted food court, just as the mechanical voice on the loudspeaker informed anyone still inside that they'd be closing down in 10 minutes, she heard the faint, but familiar melody of her locket. She followed the sound, and found some guy who'd just picked it up and was looking at it.

"Um… excuse me, did you just find that?" he looked her up and down before nodding. "Yes… is it yours?"

"Yes."

"You'll have to take it from me, then." He told her slipping it into his pocket. "Huh?" she gaped as she felt that familiar tingling again when she knew something was wrong. "Oh no…" she moaned as the familiar dark wave of wind whirled around the guy and engulfed him. A horrific scream came from a youma standing in front of her grinning maniacally. "DIABOLTE!"

"Not another one…" she thought internally as she eyed the youma. She was tired. And now she was all on her own. "Just give me back my locket and I'll consider letting you free." She told it, holding out a hand to the youma. It grinned at her and held up the shining star taunting her. "DIABOLTE!"

"You asked for it." she said holding up the broach reluctantly. She was exhausted, even before a fight. This was not good. "Moon… Prism… Power! MAKE-UP!" she yelled, transforming instantly and whirled in front of him. She didn't give the speech and instead, took out her wand. "Give me back that locket. Now."

"DIABOLTE!" shock waves appeared from its mouth and she dodged them easily… or at least, in a fashion… you get the point. Several security guards had appeared by this time and were panicking, even though Sailor Moon had firmly told them that shooting, or even threatening to arrest the thing would not be something the youma would listen to. "COME ON! JUST GIVE ME BACK MY **LOCKET**!" she shrieked, kicking him with a red-booted heel. She snatched at it, but he was still much taller than she was and she found herself jumping up and down looking like a kid.

"DIABOLTE!" she was annoyed. Sure these things didn't know much else other than kill, destroy, blow up (K: hey, sounds like Heero from GW…) stuff but it was getting annoying. Whipping out her wand she glared, "Two seconds, bug breath." She warned (the antenna on its head was whirling like it might make like a helicopter). "DIABOLTE!" it yelled flinging the golden trinket at her and jumped towards the ceiling. She caught it, fumbling with it once before looking up into the snarling youma's face as it sprung to attack.

A male voice yelled something behind her and she was about to tell whoever the fool was behind her that this was not a game, when a ball of blue-white energy blasted into the youma, slamming it off course and into the wall of the mall. Sailor Moon winced, hoping she wouldn't have to pay for that… "MOON HEALING… ACTIVATION!" she yelled, the sparkles and crystal mirages flying around the youma as it inverted back into the human that it had been. A black shadow escaped, screeching before disappearing into nothing. She turned to find Gohan just reaching her. She finally realized it had been him running over to her. She grinned. "A little late, aren't you?"

"What are you talking about?! Do you realize how hard it is to get past a bunch of freaking security guards who are shoving you the other way?"

"Knowing you? You could've, you just didn't want to hurt anyone and get sent to court." She de-transformed awkwardly before slumping against the wall, exhausted. "Come on, we're leaving now…"

"It'd better be for food or else you won't have much else to worry about other than to bury me or incinerate me after I die of hunger." 

He laughed as she loped alongside to catch up to his big strides. "Don't worry, when we reach the restaurant, you'll wish you never pigged out at the food court."

She laughed, "That'll be the day."

~*~*~*~

"…And now Usagi's alone trying to find those 'Dragonballs', Rei has disappeared to an unknown dimension, and we won't be able to find them now that my staff is gone." Pluto told the King grimly.

All present stared at her. "Now what?"

She shook her head helplessly, "I don't know."

~*~*~*~

Rei woke up to a sunny blue sky and she sat up. "What? Where am I now?" wondered Rei as she looked around. She could see that she was in a forest next to a great castle. She began to walk towards it, almost mechanically when the great, wooden doors opened and a giant machine-like robot came running out. As she stared, the castle behind them burst into flame. "Help! Please!" she shrieked as she watched the fire consume the castle quicker than she could believe it was happening. 

Surprisingly, the robot paused. She could see that the robot was holding a young man in a red shirt. The robot bent down and the face plate slid open. She could see a blond man inside of it. 

"Hurry! Get on!" The young man on the robot's hand gave her a hand up and all three continued on the way, to wherever… just as long as they were heading away from that castle, Rei would be fine. They stopped at the edge of a great waterfall. Without hesitation, the guymellef (so the huge armor of that world was called) surged forward. "Aaaahh!" her screams could be heard as they dropped down. The young man held her tight, lest she fall away from them. They landed on a flying contraption. Rei could see flying robots following them from a short distance. _Maybe hitching a ride with these guys was a bad idea… a **really** bad idea._

~*~*~*~

They all went home (with insistence from every female present) to change, shower, do the hair/make-up while all males present groaned, clutched their stomachs, and muttered about the foolishness of women and their appearances. Not exactly true, all males are not completely immune to a carefully dressed female (as they all were). 

"Wear your new dress." Bura cast the deciding vote as she shoved it into Usagi's arms. ChiChi was already burrowing through the packages for the pair of shoes they'd bought for her and which were mysteriously missing.

Luna watched all four women in their fashion frenzy and sighed, licking a paw as she watched. As soon as they were suited up (or at least wearing proper attire), they appeared in the living room where all conversation (or moaning and groaning about their stomachs) stopped immediately. The two younger guys couldn't take their eyes off of Usagi and Gohan had to try hard to keep from drooling. "What? Is it on weird or something?" she asked trying to twist around to see the back (which is physically impossible). "NO! No, it looks great on you!" said Gohan hastily as they readied themselves to leave. The cars again wouldn't fit everyone and there was much mumbling about just flying. ChiChi and Bulma however were enough to handle their husbands about the decency. Only Gohan, Trunks and Usagi (Luna stayed in Bura's lap) took to the air. They'd meet them there.

Usagi was eyeing them van moving away from them, and also of her rumbling tummy. She needed food. "I'll carry you." offered Trunks suddenly from behind her. "Great! Let's get moving, I'm **starved**!" Gohan leaped into the air after them as they flew towards the place where they wanted to go… a very nice, fancy restaurant (at ChiChi and Bulma's insistence).
    
    Still above the air, Usagi finally got the nerve to look down. What she saw dazzled her, the lights were already turning on and the sun was already setting. "It's beautiful!" she gasped as she marveled at the sights. Trunks laughed, "And to think how many people miss this."
    "Sucks to think."

After that, they flew in silence. Trunks' hair blew on his forehead softly as they weren't flying in any particular rush. He looked at the girl in his arms in the beautiful dress. He liked this girl, and he'd spoken the truth when he'd said he'd rather be a big brother. She had that look that just **yelled** "I'm still young and I need protecting."

"Do you miss your family?" he asked softly in her ear. She tensed a little but answered. "Yes, of course I do. My mom, dad, even my little brother. All my friends aren't with me here anymore. And I don't have a snowball's chance in hell here without you guys…" she drifted off and took out her star locket. "You know, this locket was from my so-called destined to be my husband and instead, he just leaves and breaks my heart just like that." and she snapped her fingers. 

"What do you mean by **destined**?" Usagi looked into his face scrunched with confusion. "It's a long story… I could tell you tonight if you're not too busy." Trunks eagerly agreed and he told her. "We're here." he landed smoothly and her dress shimmered in the sudden lights of the city restaurant. Usagi straightened her dress and all three strolled in to view the sights of the magnificent restaurant.


	6. Chapter 5: Crystal Tokyo Gossip, Phoenix...

(Chapter Five)

The Queen is gone! The Queen is gone! The Queen is gone! The castle buzzed with the news from every maid and servant. The news of course soon reached the village and it was met with horror from the some and others were filled with hope that the handsome King Endymion might choose another wife among the women of the village if the Queen never returned. They peered out of windows and behind the stands of the Village Square and watched the procession of King Endymion, the princess, the Royal Senshi… and **more** Royal Senshi? The procession led up to the castle and the minute it left the Square the buzz of conversation began anew, now about the new counterparts of the Royal Protectors.

"If this doesn't cause enough gossip to bring the whole solar system running then I don't know what will." sighed Sailor Mercury. Ami, who was being supported by her counterpart laughed half-heartedly.

~*~*~*~

"Oh no… you've found **another** girl from the Mystic Moon? What's going on, Lord Van?" asked the slightly squeaky voice of Merelu, the cat girl addressing the young man in the red shirt. Rei stared at the girl. _Is that a… cat?!_ And indeed a cat Merelu looked with her big ears, striped tail and short fur. A girl who'd been talking to one of the men hanging around the corners of the room looked up and seemed especially interested after she saw Rei's private school uniform. She excused herself from her conversation and walked towards Rei with a small smile. "Hi… I'm Kanzaki Hitomi. I'm from Japan… what's your name?" she was twisting a necklace with a pretty pendant hanging from it in her hands. Rei was taken aback for a moment… her name? "Rei. Hino Rei." She replied slowly as the name came to her suddenly. 

"Hino… Hino… Are you from Japan?"

"I **think** so…"

"You 'think so'?"

Rei turned red even though the girl's face held no scorn. "I have amnesia. I was wounded in a… in a fight." She thought bit her lip trying to remember. "A fight… as… as…" she shook her head. "I can only remember being dressed in red and shooting fire…" Hitomi eyed her carefully. "Fire…?"

"As… Mars. Sailor Mars." Rei opened her eyes to see the shocked look on Hitomi's. She began to become a little more nervous when Hitomi grasped her arm, yanking her nearer to her face. "You…" she muttered eyeing Rei carefully.

The guy with the black hair looked just as startled as herself and asked, "is there something wrong, Hitomi?" he gripped the hilt of his sword, just beginning to unsheathe as he spoke.

"You… yes, I think you **are** her… Did… anyone tell you anything?" Rei stared at her with round eyes. "No… except for this strange lady with long green hair and a big key…" Hitomi registered recognition over the explanation, "Pluto."

"Who am I, Hitomi?" The girl shook her head, sighing. "I can't tell you that Rei. I'm not you. I have only known you once before in all your life." Rei looked surprised as she tried to remember if she'd ever seen this girl before.

"You knew me? Before this happened?"

"Once. I was at a track competition at your school once and we got talking… we both liked fortune-telling."

Rei's brow scrunched as she thought hard. She could remember such a person she sat with, playing… "With… cards?" she asked hesitantly. Hitomi nodded, holding up the deck. "Tarot cards. And you were the one who was more interested in fire Seeing."

The blond man walked up towards Hitomi. She nodded once to him, "She's from Earth." He smiled kindly at Rei then, "I am Alan Schezar, a knight of Kaeli. This is Van Fanel, King of Finaalia." Rei bit her lip nodding silently as she eyed the weapons hanging at their waists. "Who is 'Sailor Mars', Hitomi?" asked Van quietly.

"She's… she's one of the magic soldiers who guard the earth. Everyone in the world knows about them! But as evil is centered in Tokyo, that is where they live." At last, Alan said quietly. "It's getting late, we can talk more in the morning. Come let me take you to your room." he took Rei's hand and led her down the hallway into a bedroom. Stopping at the doorway, he turned and left the room after a smile and a goodnight. Rei looked around. It was rather small and angular and she found a window. She walked up to it and peered out. She gasped. They were in some kind of rock grotto. Why are were they floating then? 

There was a knock at the door and it opened softly. "Rei? It's Hitomi. May I come in?" Rei gave the affirmative and Hitomi walked in. She held out a bunch of clothing. "Here are some of my clothes. I think you should be able to change out of those mud-spattered ones." She put them on the bed. "Thank you." croaked Rei, the enormity of this place finally overwhelming her. 

"Don't worry, we'll go back someday, but for now everyone here will accept you. We'll talk more in the morning. Goodnight." She walked out and closed the door behind her. A nightgown was lying on the top of the pile. Putting it on, she found that it fit rather awkwardly, her body being more curvy than Hitomi's athletic one.

~*~*~*~

They found their table in pandemonium. Apparently they'd missed a rather strange episode concerning ChiChi and something that'd happened in the alleyway where she'd run after a lipstick. They found the woman unconscious and everyone in the restaurant was shouting ideas of waking her up. Usagi looked at the woman strangely… she didn't know what, but she had this strange shivering sensation of familiarity and she didn't like it at all. Out of the blue, just as they were about to dump water in her face, she opened her eyes and gaped at the **tub** of cold water that would've drenched her from head to foot if she hadn't shrieked. "NO! I'm awake!" 

Goku looked at her carefully, "Are you sure?" he asked, more than a little worried. This was his **wife** after all and despite her normal fainting spells, this was different… this was… strange. "Yes I'm sure. We've raised such an uproar, I think everyone else (and I) are ready to eat." Shrugging they all sat down to their table.

By the end of the meal, the conversation had carried to topics that (I'm not going to mention here because I don't want to make either myself or any of you fall asleep writing/reading) Usagi had completely bored herself listening to. Something about college or of that sort? She was tired. She hadn't been able to sleep at all since that morning and like she suspected she would be, after the battle with the youma in the mall. Trunks was sitting beside her, so he was the first to notice her head beginning to bob up and down as the conversation refused to flag and let them pay the bill and leave. Finally he offered his shoulder to lean on and she complied wearily as she fell into a light doze from the exhaustion. Gohan who also had noticed had been a little shyer of offering his shoulder to her and he'd lost his chance as soon as Trunks had.

He wondered to himself if Usagi liked Trunks. It was possible, Trunks **was** a notorious knockout with the ladies. He shrugged. It was enough to have a kinda-sorta relationship with Videl, there was no reason to go lusting after strange women. Especially one who'd come from a completely different time/dimension and would soon be leaving to some other guy (he guessed). 

At last it was time to leave and Trunks woke Usagi. They all walked out into the night and went their separate ways. Usagi shivered in her dress at the blast of cool evening air but found it rather refreshing after the stuffiness of the inside restaurant. "Come on, let's get home and then you can tell us what happened between you and that guy."

"That guy? What guy?" asked Gohan interestedly as he inserted himself in the conversation. "The guy Chisaii-chan here was going out with."

"You're going out with someone?" he asked, feeling almost a little relieved. She was taken, she wouldn't come on to him and then he wouldn't have to work so hard at keeping himself away from her.

"You know, 'was' is the operative word." replied Usagi, her eyes beginning to sparkle, and Gohan swore he saw tears for a moment. "He dumped me a while back 'cause he was too scared to get in a 'serious' relationship."

__

Lost **that** excuse… Gohan found himself thinking as this new piece of information. She was single. Trunks laughed, "Hey, let's get **home** before we start talking and then you can go through the waterworks when we're well supplied with tissues and chocolate, Twinkies and any other make-me-feel-better foods, all wonderfully fattening and sugary."

"YUM! Let's hurry up and get there then!" she never noticed that she had avoided the word 'home'. Probably because she knew she didn't belong here as much as they all accepted her. Luna in Gohan's arms was sighing, "That girl never learns."

__

That's just the problem Luna… I'll never learn not to fall in love Chijba Mamoru… I couldn't learn in a thousand years before in the Silver Millennium, and I haven't learned it in the present… not even if I'm in a different time, different dimension… and a different set of friends.


	7. Chapter 6: Usa Meets Endymion, Rei Remem...

(Chapter Six)

While Trunks, Gohan, Usagi and Luna were having a nice little flight home, Goku (speeding somewhere above the speed limit) had reached home quicker (obviously) and was now lounging on the couch reading a book. An oddly normal activity, and it was odd especially for someone who knew the Super Saiyan very well. ChiChi had been extremely quiet all evening and when they got home, her husband had hesitantly voiced his question. She'd snapped back an answer and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door, leaving her husband to wonder what the hell he'd done to make her this upset.

As soon as she was locked in, she turned to the mirror and opened the tube of lipstick that she'd run down the alleyway by the restaurant to retrieve. Her reflection in the mirror spun, and disappeared into a whirling pool. Instead of her own face, there appeared a young man with blue-black hair and dark blue eyes. She stepped towards the mirror, her eyes glazed over, her palm touched the surface of the glass and as she pushed, it gave way sinking in and she stepped through it. "Master…" she said dazedly. He smiled harshly. "You will do, I suppose." He said lightly as he gestured to step aside, which she did, swaying only slightly. A stone altar rose up from the gray mists that covered the floor and on it was a pool of water. Murmuring several words that she couldn't hear, the young man stepped towards it, watching as the water rippled once before becoming as still as a mirror. A face framed with dark red hair appeared, her red eyes staring up at him. "Who has called me in the land of the Dead?" she hissed up, glaring up at him.

"I, Dark Endymion, Prince of Earth, brother to the very Endymion that you yourself love." She glared, "That man betrayed me… he chose that moon brat over the Queen of the Dark Kingdom." her words came out in a hiss. "Do you still want him?" he asked, offering his only brother like it was nothing to him. In reality, the only family left in the world was dearer to him than even his own love, but if his foolish brother didn't realize how good his life was with that blonde Moon princess, then he was going to take her back. And he needed this witch's help, as much as he hated it. She looked suspicious. "What do you want in return? I have no doubt in my mind that you are doing this because you feel pity for a Queen who fell in battle with that moon brat." She spat the word 'pity' like it was poison in her mouth. The young man looked grim, "I want that 'little moon brat' for my own and if that means giving up my brother to one of the greatest Queens of the Dark Kingdom, one who defeated the Silver Millennium in only one attack, then so be it."

The woman in the pool frowned, thinking before finally giving him a curt nod. "I need a body." She said finally. He smiled grimly, "And I have one for you. One perfect for your needs to be close to that girl." he gestured sharply to ChiChi and she walked over. The red-haired woman looked disgusted as she eyed ChiChi but shrugged, "If this is the best you could do…" she said hinting insultingly.

He glared, before talking to the black-haired woman standing beside him. "Touch your hand to the pool." He told her and she complied slowly as the woman beneath her reached out a clawed hand. A red mist erupted from the pool, swiftly enveloping ChiChi, and the blinding hot pain with it, so harsh she had to let it out. The way she did was a long, loud piercing scream as the mist was absorbed into her skin. As the young man watched, the woman stopped screaming and her head dropped so that her chin touched the center of her collarbone. She was floating in the air, a few inches from the misty floor and her watched in grim fascination as her eyes glowed a dark red, before the glow faded and her eyes appeared. But they were not hers, they were red, and what should have been white, were now a yellow-gold, the eyes of the once-Queen of the Dark Kingdom. She focused firstly on him before looking down in barely hidden disgust. "Will I have to stay in this body forever?" He glared, she was acting more the self-absorbed bitch queen that she had been back in her more glorious days.

"I would be more respectful to one who brought you back from Hell." He snapped his thin patience at an end. Even Queen Beryl knew she was going too far and she seethed at the loss of power and what this little BOY was saying to her. He wasn't afraid though, his voice ran as smooth as black velvet. "But, I will be generous. The Dark Kingdom is no longer the most powerful domain in the universe, but it still holds much of our dark rule. I myself have no interest in it as my own kingdom is enough, you can have it back, daughter of the Earth." Beryl grimaced at the mention of her birthplace. She had been named a traitor and been banished when she went to practice the dark arts and she'd turned back and defeated the planet with a vengeance.

"Very well. I will do as you ask." _But first… that little moon bitch is going to feel the wrath of a Queen torn from her kingdom._ A swirling portal appeared at her side and she stepped through into a kaleidoscope of colors and she in a strange bathroom. She looked around, mildly confused before the woman's mind told her it was her own. Memories of this woman's life flooded her and she shuddered at the thought of the strength of these beings that the woman had known… and was married to! 

She exited the bathroom slowly and found Goku still reading, sitting on the couch. He looked up and smiled at her before turning back to his book. She grimaced, for such an imbecile, this woman had at least semi-good taste in men. Perhaps a little too muscled for her taste, but he was not entirely unbearable to look at. This life, for the time being would do… until she was living the one that she wanted most of all… her own, with Endymion by her side. 

And in the two college boys' apartment, Usagi and Luna were telling them the tale of the world that they came from, and a time long before when all was at peace and the moon was paradise. But as soon as she had finished speaking, a blinding white-hot pain erupted in her eyes and she shrieked as she clutched her head. Luna's fur rose up high and she hissed as she stared at her charge's face scrunched in pain. Gohan grabbed her and held her only a second before her form flickered… and disappeared, dumping Luna uncomfortably on the floor. But she didn't care; she was staring at the vacated spot on the sofa. Where was Usagi? 

~*~*~*~

"Something's wrong… I just know it," Setsuna was pacing as she muttered. "What's happened to her?" asked Chibi-Usa fearfully, as her own mother was missing. "I don't know, she was sent into another dimension to retrieve the Rainbow crystals where I pinpointed them to be. But now… even if she finds them all, she won't be able to come back here. And my spell holding the present time won't hold forever. If that time is changed, without the senshi, there won't **be** a Crystal Tokyo and we'll be erased with it!"

"Perhaps, if we contacted her… and brought her here for a temporary time…" mused Mercury as she tended to Ami's wounds. Ami looked up at her, eyes wide… "Are you meaning to say that my inter-dimensional transport actually **works**?!" the blue-haired senshi blinked innocently. "Perhaps…"

"WOW!" The older senshi looked up at Setsuna and Pluto who were at the moment conversing. It seemed that the present had already begun effecting the future. Pluto's Time Key was gone too. "How would you do that?" asked Chibi-Usa curiously as she glanced at the two 'mad scientists'. "Well, I began the designs back in the twentieth century…" Ami raised an eyebrow, "I did, only two months ago." She told her frowning her displeasure of being left out. "**We** made designed it, but **I** built it and made it so that it would fully function… perhaps." 

"Perhaps never was a good answer."

"It's never been tested, but I **think** it could work… what other choice do we have?" There was no answer. No one else was skilled in inter-dimensional transportation other than Pluto who needed a door and key. They had neither. "Let's try it then." Setsuna finally said, sighing. "There's nothing else we can do."

It was done. The machine whirred, little lights flashed, something-or-other beeped and blipped, and both Ami and Mercury were typing on separate keyboards faster than the speed of light. Minako, though injured had not lost harmed her tongue and she whispered to Makoto, "At least we know Ames' hands weren't hurt."

As it happened, the machine was **supposed** to send Usagi in a completely painless condition right on the floor in front of them. It didn't happen **quite** that way. For one, she was screaming her head off as the skylight above them shattered into little fragments of glass and they found her plummeting through, she and her dress miraculously unharmed.

"WHAT THE **HELL** WAS THAT FOR?!" she screeched as soon as she recognized who she was with. "You couldn't have given me a WARNING?!"

Ami raised an eyebrow. "How?" she asked frankly. Usagi shrugged, "You're the scientific genius—es. Why are there two of you?"

"Because. Right now we're stuck here. And you're going to be back where you were a few seconds ago. Take this… your other communicator doesn't work. Usagi held up the battered pink watch. "You're telling **me**."

"What did you **do** to it?"

"HEY! **I** didn't do it! Some creep from the Dark Kingdom or something did it!" everyone sobered. "They followed you?"

"Maybe… but they're not **that** hard to handle by myself. Besides, I have help." She shrugged before glaring at both blue-haired girls who had been celebrating their success. "You know, you've still got some programming to do. That hurt like hell." The girls immediately stopped celebrating and bent their heads back to the machine tinkering with it. The flashing lights, and occasional beeps and blips returned were all that came from the machine and the two girls. Endymion finally stepped up, almost shyly as he looked down at the sixteen-year-old version of his wife. "Sere, I missed you." 

She raised an eyebrow, "You did?" she asked almost coolly before she remembered this was the future, not **her** guy. "Um, well… thanks." He eyed her curiously. "What is wrong?"

"Perhaps the fact that you hate me." he looked horrified at the idea. "I could never hate you, in any time, any universe—"

"—but mine." The remaining girls from the Inner senshi were silent as Endymion looked at each of them in turn for any denial. "It can't be possible…" he gaped at the odangoed girl in front of him. "That can't be true." She shrugged, "Well, I'll go home and check it out okay? I'm a nice person, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." But her words were cool and clipped. Then as a dazzling array of light surrounded her, she waved, "Bye now."

~*~*~*~

Rei stirred in her bed and sat up eyes suddenly leaping into complete focus as her nerves picked up the sense of knowing someone was in here with her. She looked around wildly for a moment before she found the only person in the room with her was Merelu, the cat-girl. She jumped up on the bed and eyed Rei curiously as Rei, knowing nothing else to do, stared blankly back at her."

"Are you **really** from the Mystic Moon?"

"Huh?"

"You know, the big blue and green thing in the sky?"

"Huh?" she repeated, not understanding. Merelu sighed in impatience and then ran to the door. "Come on! I'll show you!" When Rei didn't move for a moment, she ran back and grasped Rei's wrist in a paw and practically dragged her to the door in her impatience before dropping to all fours and running like that. 

Suddenly, well to Rei at least, she stopped in the middle of nowhere in particular and pointed up at the ceiling. "THAT." she told her triumphantly. Rei had a sinking feeling inside her. "So… I guess I never got myself back home didn't I?"

"No… but don't worry. Hitomi's trying to get home too, and when she does, you can too!" Rei looked at her strangely. She could sense something about her that was strange little glow around the strange girl. Her **aura**. She could see it.

"Ahem." Rei nearly jumped out of her skin in surprise and Merelu was startled to. She spun around with her claws unsheathed to see Van standing behind her. She jumped into his arms and began purring. He looked up at Rei in a friendly glance, colored, and looked back down at his feet. She looked down to see that the buttons on the front had become undone. They had already been straining when she'd went to bed, but she glared at herself now, knowing just how more curved she was compared to Hitomi. She swore under her breath as she hurriedly redid them and turned a most unflattering shade that made her look similar to a tomato.

"I uh, I apologize for my indecency…" she murmured, trying to find the words that would impress a king. "No, it's quite all right, you're forgiven." He told her smiling in that friendly way of his.

"Do you wake up this early all the time?" 

"Yes." Rei answered immediately. Then she face-vaulted. "How'd I know that?" she murmured unable to give herself an answer. "I'm sorry… I can't remember anything but there's always little pieces of things floating in my mind and they're so strange I don't even know if I'm dreaming it or not."

They stood silently in the empty hall and tension was beginning to build. "So… how did you get here? Hitomi came here with Lord Van, but nobody's come from there since. "So you're from Earth too?" she asked surprised, she'd heard something about him being from a place called Finaalia, and she was quite certain she'd never heard of such a place back home. "No, I went there to slay a dragon as part of the ancient rite of receiving my Kingship. When I killed it, and came home, Hitomi came along, purely by accident of course." Rei raised an eyebrow and hid a smile as he turned slightly pink. Merelu noticed this as well and smirked, licking a paw delicately. She knew too.

Suddenly, an image of a blonde with long golden hair done up in such a ridiculous hairstyle that it seemed to just scream "tease me" came up in her mind along with a tall black-haired man that she found extremely familiar. Just as the two of them together appeared in her mind, a blinding pain filled her, exploding from the very core of her body outwards. Her body seized up and she screamed in the pain, she would have dropped to the floor had there not been a wall behind her, perfect for letting her grip onto to try and regain her balance. But the wall disappeared beneath her fingers and she found herself flying through what looked like a temperamental blend of colors that were almost familiar… had they been less chaotic.

"REI!" shrieked Merelu as she bounded to the spot where the raven-haired girl had stood only a few moments ago. "What happened to her?!" she was holding onto several folds of Van's red shirt as he examined the place where she'd stood. "Was she taken away by Zaibach? Could that be it?" he murmured, but it was unlikely that his brother would do something as foolhardy as this. That girl meant nothing, she didn't have any power at all, unlike Hitomi. "No."

He whirled to face Hitomi who'd just appeared in the hallway. "No, I don't think so." She walked towards the place where she'd disappeared and touched the wall where Rei's hand been. A strangled gasp came from her and her eyelids fluttered closed as the vision swept over her. She could see the crystal towers of a brilliantly beautiful palace and the entire world seemed like paradise. A woman with long golden hair done up in two buns with streamers hanging down stood with such royal grace that Hitomi knew she must be a queen. "Hitomi… so you have finally come." Hitomi blinked, this woman could see her? "Who are you?" The woman smiled and swept out one of her bare arms towards the city she could see below the grassy cliff. "I am the Neo-Queen Serenity. This is Crystal Tokyo, where the world is finally at peace."

"Why… why is Rei here?"

"She is one of my senshi, she was destined to be my protector. But when the flow of time was tampered with, it jolted the timeline off track and those were are here now from the present were never supposed to be here. A demon that was sent to the present-time Tokyo was never supposed to have come before its appointed time, when the senshi were stronger."

"So you mean… Rei's not supposed to be in Gaea?"

"No, not so soon. But as it is now, there is no help for it. The others, to restore her memories brought her to this time. She was involved in a magical battle and it was not a physical injury that caused her amnesia. In the present, there had been no invention of this removal of dark magic but here there is. And you, Hitomi were supposed to have come to this time yourself in a time farther along time."

"Come here? But… I don't even live in this world, I live in the present, I'm a high school student I run in track… that's all!"

"But you are a goddess in your own way, you are what we call Fate."

"Fate?"

"Yes. Your visions are not normal, and I'm sure Vari has told you that you yourself control the destinies, you make up these visions from the depths of your own mind?"

"Yes…" The woman smiled. "Please… Rei will have to go back to Gaea, keep your identity a secret for now. When it is time, Fate shall meet Fire." Hitomi felt the strange swirling around her again and she barely saw the woman wave slightly before disappearing from the grassy cliff too.

"HITOMI! **HITOMI**!" the man on top of her was shaking her, trying to wake her up. Opening her eyes, Hitomi sat up. "What did you see? Where is that girl? What happened to her?" asked Merelu continually, spouting the questions like a fountain spouts water.

"She's… she's home. At least… it will be her home, one day." Hitomi smiled, and small sparkles caught in the pendant at her neck making it glimmer, a symbol of Fate, a symbol of **her** destiny.

~*~*~*~

Endymion was keeping well away from the Royal senshi. He was feeling quite terrible, and Usagi's visit had acutely sent an arrow straight through his heart. He wondered whether or not the thing was even beating still. Did his past self really hate her? No… it was impossible, nothing in the entire world could make him hate this golden angel from the moon, ever in any lifetime. "She's coming!" a voice ripped through his mind shattering his thoughts for a moment, leaving him just wide-eyed and staring. This was not supposed to be happening, he was supposed to be the cool and confident ruler alongside his wife. Granted, she'd always gotten so much more publicity than him, but he did a good job ruling anyway. _Don't let them know… and if possible, you're going to have a **little** chat with yourself in a little while…_

"Maybe we can talk some sense into her." Setsuna was tugging at the bow on her shirt in slight nervousness. This girl had magically induced amnesia and even though her 30th century self assured her that they certainly did have the technological advances (mainly due to Mercury) she was still nervous. She did **not** want to explain to her princess that her best friend had been killed being a guinea pig tester in the 30th century.

The sudden lack of substance in the air became painfully obvious as she stared, looking quite ill at the space where the air thickened and dissolved into a myriad of colors that flowed rather than flashed. It was shaped in the form of a woman and Rei appeared fully a moment later, dropping to the ground, unconscious.

"Oh dear," murmured Michiru softly as she kneeled down, bring the girl into a sitting position in her lap just as Haruka bent down and picked her up in her arms. "Where's she headed for?" she asked looking around for a bed of some sort where she could place the girl.

__

Where am I? The girl wondered, floating in and out of consciousness, her eyes fluttering slightly before becoming still. _Why am I here? Who am I, really? Am I really who Hitomi tells me, some super heroine?_ But even as she thought these, another voice, a seductive, persuasive voice whispered in her mind, _Don't think of such things… it is better not to remember times of hurt, times of pain. Think only of what is happening now, to this being that you are, and nothing else…_ No pain… no hurt… She swooned again, and her eyelids didn't flutter again.

"You know, it doesn't look like she's going to wake up." Venus suddenly said as she stared at the girl on the bed. "She's been out for… how long?"

"Three hours, twenty-five minutes and exactly thirty-two seconds." Replied Mercury aimlessly as she glanced at the clock on the screen as she prepped the machine that had been put together with a mixture of both machinery and machine. "Don't bother her."

"Hell, are you kidding? She's gotta wake up. Now is as good a time as any." Venus got up and grabbed the pitcher of ice-cold water on the dresser beside Rei. She grinned as the others leaped at her to put it down and drag her away from the unconscious girl before she triumphantly upended the entire onto the girl's face.

"AHHHH!!" shrieked Rei as she jerked up, her face and hair soaked and she stared up at the vivacious blonde on top of her and shrieked again. "AH!! GET **OFF** ME!" before literally shoving the girl away from her. She gained her wits slowly and leaned over the edge of the bed, looking at the frowning senshi of love on the floor rubbing her butt. "That hurt y'know." 

"Who… who are you?" she asked the blonde slowly, wondering where she was. And why the **hell** was there a girl that looked exactly like her standing there? Or at least, how she looked like when she looked into a mirror in the morning? "You're in the 30th century in Crystal Tokyo chirped the blue-haired girl-girls. One of them was heavily bandaged but they were still identical. "What's going on here?" she asked beginning to get extremely nervous. This was too strange, **really** strange.

"She's awake now. Everyone out." Mercury shooed the rest of them out of the room while Ami gestured for Rei to come closer to her, as she didn't exactly want to get up with all the bandages. Rei walked over carefully eyeing the entire room carefully. "It's a strange place isn't it? I bet you can hardly wait till we get home."

"We?"

"Yeah, in present-day Tokyo? WE are stuck here while **you** get to go back and see some interesting new places."

"You mean Gaea?"

"Oh, is that what it's called? Well, yeah you're going to have to go back to Gaea. We don't have enough power to keep you here for long. We need to reverse that amnesia. It was caused by magic… and we want to remove."

Rei's eyes hardened, "Keep the hell away from me, girl." she hissed, her voice taking an entirely different tone. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Perhaps **she** doesn't, but I know **I've** got you covered." said another voice from behind them. Rei turned to see Mercury holding a bubble of… something in her gloved hand. And from the look of it, it looked cold and… icy.

"Now, get in that chair. NOW!" Mercury ordered, and Ami found herself wondering exactly how much she'd change in a thousand years. "No." hissed back Rei, whose eyes had become a horrendous red and her skin deathly pale. "This girl shall die before I leave her. I chose her amongst all you rabble. Though, I was tempted to pick that moonchild… she had powers. But this one has stronger psychic power than any I've ever seen—"

"Not as much as I have." said a voice from the door. All three of them turned to the door where Rei's replica (in her senshi fuku) had a fire arrow notched into a flaming bow aiming at her replica. "You!" hissed the possessed Rei. "You are one and the same with this body! If she dies, **you** die." The girl laughed harshly and her hand never wavered from her half-invisible bowstring.

"My mission has always been to protect my queen. As long as she is safe, I don't care about anything else. If losing my life keeps this world at peace, then so be it. But… I'm willing to make a trade." She told her.

"Such as?"

"Take me instead. You talk of psychic power. I am a thousand years more powerful than she is, just as she is a thousand years more powerful than her past self in the Silver Millennium. I am stronger. Trade her for me."

"Yesss…" hissed the girl softly as Mercury behind her carefully aimed an ice bubble at her back in case she tried anything funny. "Then I'LL TAKE YOU!" she shrieked as a huge red mist erupted from Rei, who slumped to the ground shaken, as it flew at Mars with astonishing speed. She loosed the arrow, and when that only slowed it down, she cursed and ripped something out of what looked like thin air. "AKURIYO TAISAN!" she yelled throwing an ofuda at it, stopping it in midair. "AQUA RHAPSODY!" yelled Mercury behind it, freezing the thing. It crashed to the ground and into little pieces of ice that soon melted away.

"Wha—what was that?!" asked both Ami and Rei having never seen one of them before. "It was one of the foolish possession demons that are killed so quickly… we've learned how to deal with them, but you haven't yet, I suppose." Rei looked at them all confusedly and was no hindrance when they gently led her into the chair, right below the mechanical monstrosity that would give her back her memories. Mars just stood there shaking her head and sighing. The mad scientist(s) had found a test subject.

After a lot of tinkering and… more tinkering, the blasted thing finally worked and Rei was led out to see the rest of them for the last few minutes before she was to be shot straight back into Gaea again. "I'm… I'm sorry all of you for all this trouble," she said softly, ashamed of herself for falling so easily into that… thing's control, "and I'll be back… after I finish doing whatever it is I'm supposed to do in Gaea… and we can all go. Go home." She smiled, waving slightly as she felt the dizziness again, "And besides, Van and Hitomi need me around." She disappeared.

"I don't have a clue why their lives are so perfect right now. They've both been sent to really dangerous places without us to help them out and their ecstatic to be there!" Her future self smiled wryly, "I wouldn't worry about that one, she can fight like a wildcat… and she can sure make a girl's butt kill when she shoves her out of the way!" she shrugged, "Bubble baths for **everyone** now. There's absolutely nothing to do, and there are **plenty** of bathrooms around here for all of us. Come on, all of you—including you too Endymion-sama!"

Minako grinned. Ah, at least in the future, she had the power she deserved!

~*~*~*~

"USAGI-CHAN!" yelped Luna as Usagi reappeared, incidentally standing on Luna's tail, so that while the cat was ecstatic to see her again, she was in considerable pain in the meantime. "Hey guys! I'm back!" she said happily before noticing her cat's painful situation under her foot and she released the poor kitty's tail, which was instantly lavished great attention by its owner.

"What happened to you, Chisaii-chan?" asked Trunks (the nickname had really stuck by this point).

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you—" she was interrupted by a sudden beeping from the mini-computer. The two guys stared at the thing. "A… watch?" asked Gohan staring at the antiquated-looking thing. She narrowed her eyes, "No, it's my communicator/computer thingamajigger in a watch." The screen fuzzed for a few seconds before zoning in on a face. "King Endymion?" she gasped as she looked at the handsomely worried face on the screen. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing… I'm just going to say to you, I'm going to have a little chat with my… former self. And I was going to inform just in case you were wondering how the hell he got the shit beaten out of him for being an asshole."

"You **do** recall you're the same person…" he smiled rather sadly, "Perhaps, but I promise you I would **never** love anyone other than you, Sere."

"Endy, you're doing it again." She replied automatically before doing a double-take. "Huh?" she asked herself. "Where did **that** come from?"

"I knew it. You've got Sere in you, even though you're still sixteen."

She looked puzzled but he shook his head, "Don't worry about it. I'm just going to have a little… **talk** with myself. Literally." His face disappeared from the screen and she laughed. "Endy always was one to go over the edge." She muttered before turning to the two humans' (and one feline) confused faces. "You would **not** believe me if I told you." She repeated again.


	8. Chapter 7: Mamo-chan Fights Himself, Mer...

(Chapter Seven)

The once-Queen of the Dark Kingdom was having a difficult time adjusting to her new life with Goku. And she had first-hand experience being a cook for a very hungry man. She failed miserably at it and the good-natured (though quite confused) husband of hers took them both out for breakfast.

As they made their way out of the restaurant and towards their car, she noticed a young dark-haired man kissing a petite blonde with long golden pigtails. _Is it **her**?!_ she fumed, suddenly pulling away from Goku and stomping towards them, forgetting all her queenly dignity when she was faced with such a hatred. She wrenched the girl away from the young man, despite both their startled protests and she was even more enraged to find that they looked nothing like the Prince of Earth and the Princess of the Moon. Growling under her breath, and ignoring the complaints that were reaching her ears as she walked back, her ears turning an embarrassing shade of red, and her fists clenched. Why did **EVERYTHING** she saw remind her of that bratty little princess winning her Endymion's love?! There was nothing that despicable little child had that she hadn't had!

"ChiChi, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She growled, planting herself in the passenger seat of their car. Goku had (finally) passed his driver's test and was deemed (loosely) safe to meet on the road. And so, anyone who saw them would have seem them zooming away (just at the speeding limit too) and ChiChi's hair starting to turn slightly auburn at the ends…

~*~*~*~

King Endymion stepped into the present and looked around at the time-frozen world. He noticed especially the youma (whose fingers… or whatever they were, twitched at times). He made his way to Mamoru's apartment, (snapping his fingers of course… a handy spell did what would've taken ten minutes to do on foot) and levitated to the balcony. He found himself staring at, well, himself. He snapped his fingers, and his younger self stumbled into animation again. He looked up instantly to see the not-to-pleased King. "What the…?" he asked, looking around in shock.

"So I see you weren't even at the battle, much less taken away."

"What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to ask you a question. Why you want to let the woman we both love slip away from us! I'm losing my **wife** and my child with her!" King Endymion barked angrily, silencing his other self. "Now you'd better tell me what the hell you're up to, because I do **not** want to go home finding a wasteland with no moon in sight!"

"Why should I care anymore?! She's not part of my life!"

"And I came here just to ask that very question. WHY THE HELL NOT?!"

"Because I **love** her dammit!" he yelled, finally snapping, slamming his fist on the railing of his balcony. "I love her, I love her, I love her!"

"That told me nothing."

"Nothing? Look, I'm **dying** okay? I've got some kind of new disease similar to cancer that no one in any medical field can figure out. And when I do die, I don't want to have her breaking her heart because of me. I love her, and I don't want her to keep on loving a dead guy!"

"You're… you're not going to die, I'm still here." Mamoru growled, "And how long will you stay that way? Do you have any idea how many times I've regretted this decision? I don't **need** her to cry for a guy that'll leave her for the very last time!" he turned away from his future self, angry with himself, and completely ashamed. "And I can't tell her the truth… so I chose a way that she was completely familiar with, thanks to your meddling, and one that I know how to manipulate. She's not mine anymore, okay? I'm going to die, and she's not going to care."

"I can't believe I was such a fool." Replied his double coldly.

"What are you talking about?!" Mamoru whirled to face his floating self. "I'm saying that I was a complete idiot to do something like this in the past. I would not drop my wife with the drop of a hat and walk away, not for anything. And I know for sure that she deserves the truth. And by god you're going to tell her the truth!" he yelled, grabbing Mamoru's collar and dragging him upwards so that he was floating in the sky above his balcony too. "Come on!" he yelled as he dragged his other self through the portal and through the galaxy-dotted space that was time.

"Your stop." He said suddenly, letting his past self go and Mamoru despite himself, yelled quite loudly as he was dropped into a pool of light. Dammit, things were not going well today.

~*~*~*~

"What the hell does that girl got that I haven't got?!" she raged to herself when she and Goku had returned to their home and she'd taken a turn with throwing things, and ranting and raving. Goku apparently found this normal and he took a stance of cowering behind a pillow on the couch as she paced back and forth. "What girl?"

"That despicable blonde hussy that stole my—my, son." she made up suddenly. "Who, Usagi? What's wrong with her? If she's got a thing going on with Gohan, it's better than Goten's blonde, air-headed girlfriend."

"She **is** a 'blonde air-headed' little brat and I do **not** want her around m-us, any more than she has to stay!" she shrieked. She hated that brat and that was all she needed to tell. "I want my life back, I don't want any of this!" Suddenly she stopped, this guy wasn't the brightest crayon in the box but he could put two and two together soon enough and she was determined not to have that happen. "Um… sorry about that…" she mumbled, "I'm going to take a bath." She stood up and marched out of the living room and into the bathroom and, slamming the door behind her and locking, she whispered a word phrasing and passed her hand over the glass of the mirror. The familiar swirling began again and she clutched the edge of the sink to keep her balance as the entire room swirled along with the lines of the glass.

"Have you got her?" the boy asked her as soon as his face was clear. That was all he was, a little boy! And she had to grovel to **him**! But this wouldn't last long. She had no intention of giving him the girl, she was finding her old powers all on her own and she was becoming more like herself every day. She didn't need that little boy to help her. She could torture this little hussy until she begged for death.

"Not yet, Sir." She said as respectfully as she could, and keeping her head lowered. It would not do to let him know so soon.

"Hurry up with it then! I have need of her soon. And if you cannot to the job… there is always another alternative." His face hardened into a grim smile, which even Beryl had to shudder when she saw it.

"Y-yes, master, just let me have a little longer… I promise I'll bring that little bi-girl to you as soon as I can."

"Then quit dawdling, woman! I have very little time and patience for dealings with anything of the mortal realm and I want to get my meeting with her done with."

"Yes, master."

"Dismissed." The swirling disappeared and she was staring at the woman's reflection again. She looked carefully; noting with satisfaction how much her appearance was beginning to change back into her former self… the auburn of her hair was proof of that. She smiled in satisfaction, and walked out the door of the bathroom. She quickly exited the bathroom, finding Goku watching the TV and announced that she was going out for a while, leaving the house before he could say anything. He blinked but continued watching some reruns of some cartoon…

Usagi looked up from her manga (thank goodness for the existence of such wonderful things as these still!) to see ChiChi standing at the door looking ready to kill. "Damn that stupid door! That thing almost took my head off!" she was yelling as she kicked the metal door with a foot before wincing with the pain. Usagi walked forward, eyeing the woman curiously. "Um, hi." ChiChi looked up to see her and she grimaced, Usagi guessed still from the pain of kicking a solid metal door. "Oh it's you."

"Uh… yeah, the others just left for a few minutes to do something downstairs in the lobby… do you want me to call them?"

"No thank you, Miss Moon." she replied icily, glaring at the girl. "Is there something wrong…?" Usagi asked hesitantly, wondering what this woman was mad at her about. There was nothing she could think of. "I want you away from here, you got that? I'm giving you a chance to just get up and go." Usagi's mouth opened in protest, she couldn't do that! "I can't do that! I've got to get my crystal back!" Beryl narrowed her eyes. Fine, she'd do it her own way.

She reached into a pocket in her jacket, pulling out something. It was a small key, violet, with a glowing red stone in it. She held it up for Usagi's inspection. "Recognize it, little moon brat?" she asked. Usagi gaped at the thing, and Luna, who'd just come into the room, hissed, her fur standing on end.

At her telepathic command, the key grew to the size of the Time Staff (which it was) but what had been once violet had now deepened into an impossible shade of black. The red gem once seeming to glow with a comforting light of eternity seemed now to be a gleaming red eye of some dark destiny. 

"You… what did you do to Pluto?!" cried Usagi staring at it. She wasn't as dumb as she seemed… she recognized that key. "I haven't been rotting in the underworld for the past few years Miss Moon after you killed me, I had my revenge in mind. And I made my plans. I'm sure you remember a certain youma you had not enough skill to defeat…?"

"Who… who are you?" whispered Usagi as she watched the woman with the gleaming auburn hair, and the triumphant face. "You don't remember me? I was the queen of the Dark Kingdom… and I should have ruled the universe with Prince Endymion at my side!" she yelled, pointing the Time Staff at Usagi. "Now you and your little cat are going to pay." Usagi paled immensely before taking out her broach. This was **not** a good thing. "Why are you here?"

"TO BRING YOU TO ME." stated a voice, the volume intense and loud. Usagi immediately covered her ears, noting that Beryl didn't do anything, she was too busy scowling with extreme anger. "NOW MY SLAVE. BRING HER TO ME."

"Yes, master." She finally spat out, before snatching the front of her collar, kicked Luna out of the way, and let the both of them disappear into a dark swirling vortex that had appeared behind them. Usagi lost consciousness as the darkness and the evil overwhelmed her.

~*~*~*~

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" a scream rent the air as she fell from the heavens. _Dammit, I can't die just like this can I?!_ she thought to herself, **_why_** couldn't they have fixed that dimensional whatchamacallit **right**?! There were few precious seconds before her body would be broken on the ground below, and at her speed, if not the first impact, the second. She closed her eyes as she accepted the coming of death. She couldn't stop it.

She suddenly found strong arms grasping her, stopping her inches away from the dirt and rock of the ground below her. Her eyes flew open to see the shoes, tan pants, and red shirt of Van Fanel himself. He was grasping her by her abdomen and he immediately righted her, her long hair flying into her face as he did so. With an expert twist of her head (as she'd done this many times with hair as long as hers) her hair whipped back around to hang down her back again. She was still extremely disoriented, staring around her and swaying unsteadily on her feet. "Where… where are we?" she asked shakily as Alan caught her form behind as her feet finally gave out.

"You're back with us… we're in the Dragon's Graveyard."

"Why… why would you be in a… graveyard?" Alan smiled, gesturing at Hitomi running towards them (quickly) and said, "Hitomi had a vision about it… of course, we never expected you to fall from heaven like the angel you are." Van sighed, shaking his head. Merelu (who was clinging to Van's arm) mimicked the same sigh. "You are such a player, Alan." The man in question smiled charmingly. Rei had to laugh this man was charming **and** hot! She could almost imagine herself running her fingers through his long golden hair. Alan grinned, as if reading her thoughts, "I am a knight. I would not do something as dishonorable as such." He had such a comical look in his eyes (even though his face remained completely serious) that all present began laughing."

"Hey, what's so funny?!" demanded a panting Hitomi. Van's answer was quick, "Nothing, nothing… Hitomi." Rei saw the look he gave her… and Alan's as well. Apparently something was happening around the three of them that Hitomi didn't even realize. She grinned, might as well help them along.

Hitomi's face relaxed into a pleased grin and she immediately hugged Rei. "I'm so glad you're okay now." She whispered in her ear. Rei's eyes widened. She knew. Hitomi pulled away and winked before she asked a question to the two men (still looking rather dazedly at her) whether they should be getting back to the ship or not.

"Hello? Hello? Hey, Van, snap out of it!" she exclaimed waving a hand in front of the guy's face. Rei sighed… he was even more gone on her than Odango-atama was on Mamoru-san. She mentally winced as she remembered Mamoru-san. He'd gone out with her at first, and she'd been completely enamored of him. She'd imagined spending the rest of her life with him. Then the damn truth had to come out that **he** was completely in **love** with Usagi-chan. She sighed, shaking her head. Oh well, there were always other fish in the sea, she told herself firmly.

"Oh, yes Hitomi, I think you're quite right." replied Alan suavely as he lay an arm around her shoulders. Rei saw Van tense but trying not to make it seem so obvious. They all walked rather silently back to the ship. The three in front that is. For Rei and Merelu, there was already a conversation coming on as the three ahead walked on. They were quite far behind, as Merelu of course knew the way through the forest they were going through and that gave them time to slow down and talk. "What did you do, Rei-san?" she asked interestedly as she stared up at the Earth and the moon above in the sky. "Did you go back?" Rei shrugged, "I'm not sure… I didn't go **home**… I was called into the future of my world." Merelu looked rather confused, but shrugged it off. "Well things have been happening around here too. Alan and Van-sama are getting rather…" she waved her hands in an expressive way, but couldn't find the words to explain. Rei nodded, "I could see." She frowned afterwards, "But Hitomi can't."

"Should we tell her?"

"I'm sure she can work things out for herself. She can chose, she has the choice of being **able** to chose." Replied Rei softly to herself. "I recall her being rather enamored of a certain track star from her school last time I saw her…" Merelu's eyes widened, "You remember now?"

"Yeah." The cat girl smiled, "Great! Then you and Hitomi can—ahhh!!!!!!!" she shrieked as a tree behind her, warped suddenly, a grinning face showing through the bark, and the branches snatched her in its grasp, at her arms, and leaving her legs kicking, but unable to affect the huge tree in any way. Rei gasped, "HEY! Let her go!"

"Hush little lady. I'm going to take the little kitty for some questioning… she apparently knows a lot about those two guymellef fighters." Rei grimaced as a flailing branch smacked her in the face as the tree uprooted itself, and began to quickly slide away on its roots. "GET BACK HERE! I'll teach you not to mess with me!" she yelled, snatching something out of her shirt pocket, "MARS POWER!" the emblem on the stick she was holding began to spin quicker and quicker as the girl's body was clothed in a clinging white bodysuit and a short skirt. Two bows, gloves, a red sailor collar, tiara and high-heeled red shoes appeared on her as she yelled, "FIRE **SOUL**!" and the entire tree shuddered as the flames licked at the branches, burning many into a cinder. But a quick smack with several of its multiple others sent her flying into another tree, making her cry out as Merelu continued to struggle before she was knocked unconscious.

Mars was a tough girl and she got up slowly, ready to take on that blasted tree. "AKUROU TAI—AH!!!!!!" she screamed in the middle of the word as she was picked up by a branch wrapped around her foot, razor sharp leaves slicing at her legs and arms as she was repeatedly smacked against the earth again and again. She could feel herself already losing consciousness but she managed to choke out the words. "FIRE **SOUL**!" And the blaze of fire that shot up into the sky from the tree's branches could be seen by anyone, even the three of their companions already running back when they'd heard the screaming.

The tree slammed Rei against the ground again, and could've broken her neck if she hadn't twisted around to land on her side and groaned at the pain of the rocks digging into her flesh. She could feel her power diminishing already, and, sure enough by the next blow, her fuku disappeared and she was back into her original clothes. The tree proceeded to throw her back to the ground again, and scuttled along like a spider on its roots, Merelu hanging limply from a branch twisted around her. Rei couldn't even stand up.

"Rei-san! Oh god what happened?!" cried Hitomi, trying to lift the raven-haired priestess but barely succeeding and only managed to help the girl sit up. "Merelu." Gasped Rei as she pointed to the earth that had been completely churned and ground but the uprooting of the tree. "It took her… I couldn't stop her." she collapsed in Hitomi's arms, and fell into unconsciousness.

"WHAT?! Is she **all** you have to bring back from them?! A **cat**?!" yelled Dilandau when the tree had found its way into the floating fortress of Zaibach. "I… I thought she could be useful." The tree monster whispered shrinking away from the red-armored boy. "Why… why don't you see her first?" suggested the monster in a whisper.

"Not now, I have better things to do than watch a cat hiss at me." he turned and stalked away from the tree monster.

Far away, Rei, who'd finally woken up, was explaining everything to the remaining others about what had happened to her, and then what had happened with Merelu. No one spoke after she was done, and they all looked grim as they thought silently. Hitomi looked rather worried as she twisted the necklace with the pendant in her hands. _She knows something,_ thought Rei eyeing her curiously, but Hitomi never cared to explain.

****

SMASH! BOOM! "AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" the sudden noised made all their heads jerk towards the door where a man had just flown past the open doorway. Alan and Van were immediately on their feet and at the door, hands on the hilts of their swords. Just as suddenly, a swirl of air made them turn back just in time for both Hitomi and Rei to be caught up in a swirling vision of a chaotic battlefield.

"NO!!!!!!!!!" screamed both of them at exactly the same time, their eyes snapping open. The two males stared. Not one of them had ever had visions except for Hitomi… then why was Rei wearing the same horrified expression on her face as Hitomi? "What is it?"

"There's no way!" gasped Rei her eyes still unseeing as she was still half in the vision and still watching. "There's no possible way an entire **army** of machines can be invisible!" A gasp went around the room (other than Hitomi, who already knew more of the subject in question) as they all stared at the girl who'd never before seen one of the enemy guymellefs, especially as they'd never even spoken a **word** about those things.

"Did you see anything else?" asked Alan grimly. "It's Merelu… she's in… Zai… Zaibach." She murmured as the name finally came to her, as she stared in horror at the floating black… thing. "She's… she's an enemy."

"The Gold and Silver Twins!" Hitomi suddenly said out of nowhere as she stared pleadingly at all of them. "They're there too!" A jolting in the entire floor that they were standing on made Hitomi cry out, "They're coming… they're attacking the fortress." she moaned, holding her head.

They could hear the splintering of wood, and crashes and screams outside. Van and Alan were on their feet in a moment. "Van and I will go out in the guymellefs. Hitomi… you and Rei stay here… it should be safe." ordered Alan as he made his way towards the hall.

"HEY! You're not leaving me behind!" yelled Rei standing up. "I'm coming too!" Alan cursed at the delay but turned back to her, "We can risk your safe—"

"Screw my safety! I'll be fine. I'll more help than you think! Those guymellef things aren't that protective against direct fire… and fire is my specialty."

He sighed but they all knew they'd need help. Hitomi had that look in her eyes. The look that made sure that she wouldn't be left behind. "Very well… let's go."

"Wait!" he turned again, looking extremely impatient, especially knowing that there were good men that might be dying right now. "WAIT FOR ME TO TRANSFORM YOU BAKA!" she yelled before covering her mouth and looking rather sorry.

Hitomi giggled, she already knew Sailor Mars… but would the men's eyes pop out or what? She suddenly got an image of that, and she frowned. She didn't like that idea very much. "Um… Rei… I don't think—" But it was already too late. Rei had yelled the henshin words. "MARS… POWER!" Too late, the thought came to her. _Oh no… I'm naked!_ Her clothing disappeared, leaving her naked body twirling in the air, covered in ribbons of irridescent magic. The circles of fire appeared around her, changing into her fuku. Rei no longer stood there. She was Sailor Mars. Despite herself, Hitomi laughed out loud. Both Alan and Van were staring quite openly at the beautiful raven-haired senshi.

~*~*~*~

"Ow…" moaned Usagi, finally waking up. She sat up and looked around. "What happened?" she asked woozily, spotting a large stone throne with a crescent moon carved at the top. She got up, and cautiously made her way towards it. _Where am I?_ she wondered… this place was freaking her out. A sudden cold wind sprung up and she shivered the candles that stood next to the stone dais where the throne was flickered violently. She whirled, trying to find the source of the wind at least. She caught something out of the corner of her eye, and she instinctively reached for her broach, clutching it in her hand nervously. She turned back, towards the throne, and found a person sitting on it now. She gasped, taking an involuntary step backwards, before she recognized the figure, and she gasped again. "Mamo… Mamoru-san?" she stuttered.

The guy's beautiful blue eyes softened only infinitesimally. There she was, right in front of him, his beautiful princess, the moonchild of his dreams. "No, Serenity-hime. I am his older twin brother. You should never know my name again… so call me naught else other than Dark Endymion. That is a correct way of saying it…" She was confused and asked, "What do you know about destiny?!"

"I was the one you met on the Moon Kingdom, love. Well fell in love and would've married, a fortnight from the day Queen Beryl attacked. But the darkness captured me. I was still in love with you… and I sent my brother to be with you… to protect you. But something happened that I hadn't expected. He fell in love with you too." he grimaced, "Looking back, that was a foolish thing to do. Anyone would've fallen in love with you. You were perfect." Usagi turned red, remembering her mother telling her about these things. She was nothing like that now. "He never was able to free me… and when you both died that night, and he became Mamoru… he forgot anything that had ever to do with me. But I never died. I've been watching you all along… I could never forget you."

"What do you want with me?!"

He gave a short laugh without humor, "I want you back, Serenity-hime. I was the first one. And I shall have you again."

"Just because you were first doesn't mean I have to love you forever!" she yelled back, scared and trying not to show it. He raised an eyebrow and smiled slowly, "You have such confidence in my little brother, hime? I did not see him with you when you went into battle. I did not see him even when all your friends had fallen and you were alone. But I did hear you yell that you 'couldn't even depend on love anymore'." She grit her teeth, "That was none of you business, creep." 

His eyebrows rose as he looked at her. "You are nothing like you were on the moon **Usagi**." He told her, using her name in disgust. "You are a completely vulgar, unmannered girl and I cannot believe that even my little brother still loved you as the moonchild." He was disgusted with this human which he had loved for so long, and now that she was right in front of him, was blatantly telling him that she did not love him, and that she wasn't even the one he loved.

She winced but she said, "I know I'm not the same person as I was on the moon… I know that. I'm a complete ditz when it comes to anything, I'm no good at figure-skating anymore, I flunked the Princess Academy, I fail any test I take…" she grimaced, "But I am still Princess Serenity, Sailor Moon and also the future of Crystal Tokyo. I am the Neo-Queen Serenity." She told him, her eyes steely. "And I know one other thing. What you think you felt back on the moon was not love. Love is something that one feels for another throughout eternity. You had an obsession with me. That's all." She told him firmly, and for a split second, he saw a visage of an older, more regal face in her, and a sense of royalty again. Neo-Queen Serenity, the destruction of all that was evil… and when that time came, his destruction would be nigh approaching as well.

His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Usagi-san, do not dare consider me as much a blockhead as my little brother. Can you not tell he does not love you? He dares not see you, dares not to talk to you."

She could feel tears beginning to slide down her cheeks as he continued on with his harsh words which she knew that some were the truth, and others were her own fears. "BUT I LOVE **HIM**!" she yelled suddenly, interrupting them. "And I don't care whether or not he loves me back anymore." She said finally, brushing away the tears from her cheeks with her hand.

"He does love you, Usako." came an almost strangled voice from behind her. She gasped and whirled to see her Mamoru, standing behind her, gripping heavily on the ebony wall as he raised himself up onto his feet. "I'm here, Usako… I was… delayed." Usagi gasped again, "You called me… you called me…" she stuttered.

"I called you the name I always call you." he said softly, before lifting his eyes to his older brother who was looking down at him in scorn. "So the knight in shining armor comes at last. Welcome, traitor." Mamoru winced at the words. "That was harsh, brother." He replied slowly, still rather dizzy with the entire transportation thing. But one thing was for sure. He wouldn't die without letting Usako know the truth at least. He couldn't give her much else other than that.

His brother stepped down from the dais and faced the two of them. "You are pathetic, brother. You have always been, and always hid behind me. When the time came that I asked for your help, you went and stole my fiancée. You refused to help me when I needed you. You made her forget entirely about me. That is why you were a traitor, in more ways than one."

"Perhaps you find me a traitor, brother, but I followed my heart. You did nothing but watch. I found you need to fight for what you want. Or else you'll lose everything." He glanced at Usagi. "And right now, I might've lost the one thing I care about more than anything in the world."

"No you haven't. You were never supposed to love her in the first place!" hissed a voice that seemed to resonate around them, brimming with evil. Mamoru's eyes widened as he recognized that voice. "Oh god, Usako is that…" Usagi was holding her head, "Not again…" she moaned.

A wind sprang up again, visible as a moving whiteness that swirled in a globe. When it dispersed, they found themselves staring at Queen Beryl, in all her past glory. "WHAT?!" roared Dark Endymion, drawing his black sword. "What did you do?!"

"Did you really think you could keep me under your thumb forever, **master**?! I have powers that not even death can take away from me. Now I am as I was, and you, who tried to control me, and threatened me in such a way… you're going to pay!" Pluto's time staff appeared the black and red making a horrifying visage in her hand as she grasped it and faced him.

With a battle cry, Dark Endymion lunged forward, thrusting his sword towards her, which she parried the red glow of the orb making swipes of crimson in the air as they fought quickly and viciously. Usagi found herself watching a horrid fight where there were no rules, but pure anger and viciousness. It was a quick fight. As strong as he was, Dark Endymion was not powerful enough to overcome a previous Queen, who'd lived for thousands of years, armed with a weapon of such power that he fell before her soon enough. Usagi didn't know what to do, but Mamoru had a strange look on his face. Suddenly, as if he'd made his decision, a sword appeared in his hand, and his clothes shifted into that of the armor he wore as Prince of Earth. With a roar, he ran into the battle, slicing quickly at Beryl with the broadsword.

But even with both of them, they were beaten quite effortlessly and found themselves lying a meter or two apart as Queen Beryl gloated over her power and picked up the sword of Dark Endymion and walked towards him. Usagi's eyes widened as she ran at the woman, throwing herself at her in an attempt to stop her. Beryl simply slammed the hilt into her gut, stopping her in mid-air and watching her fall in a heap, gasping for breath before standing over Dark Endymion. "So, the little prince can't even control his servants… you should never underestimate your opponents, little one… they can lead to disaster." She raised the sword up over his chest, plunging it into his heart quickly, before he could roll away. The man's eyes widened, and blood began flowing from the wound onto the floor, staining his clothes as the room around him grew increasingly blurry. He heard someone yelling, and finally saw his own little brother in front of him. There were tears. A memory suddenly sparked up in his mind, when both of them were still little and his brother's dog had died. He'd been crying then too… "Be a man Endy… accept things." He whispered the same words he'd said so long ago as he slowly slipped away.

"Go…men… na…sai… Serenity…hime…" the last words passed through and with another sagging breath, he lay still. His little brother, kneeling in front of him looked at him in shock. Even when he was a being of evil, he'd learned to forgive and forget… at the very last. He grasped the bloodied hand of his twin and gave a last shuddering sob before turning towards Beryl. "I'll kill you with my bare hands, witch!" he yelled, and Usagi found herself glaring at her with the same anger and hate. Perhaps she might truly have loved him once, a long time ago like he said. 

Clenching her fists, she stood up and stared at Beryl. Beryl was taken aback a little. The girl's facial expression… it was hard, cold fury. Her face was completely absorbed in such a look of hatred that her eyes had darkened to almost black. "You will pay for this… he might have changed… he might've become good again…" 

The queen laughed, "Then I saved him from a fate worse than death, I see… and now, you can join him." Raising the staff, she gave a triumphant laugh.

She knew before she saw it, from Dark Endymion's still body there came a rush of golden light, which began to swirl in the air. Usagi turned to it, watching the light play over her body. She knew what was happening. She grasped Mamoru's arm, "Forget about her for now… we've got to go!" she ran towards the light, that was already growing fainter as it stayed open. He tried to struggle, but she overpowered the tired man, and shoved him in, turning only to grab ChiChi's body, lying on the floor behind her and drag her in after her. Right before Beryl lunged at her seconds later. 

She and Mamoru tumbled into the apartment of Gohan and Trunks right when they had just gotten into the apartment and found it a disaster area. (Let's just say that the portal that sucked Usagi in made quite a mess) She fell to the ground right in front of their stunned faces and fainted dead away. 


	9. Chapter 8: Rei Makes War, Merelu Attempt...

(Chapter Eight)

"WHAT?" demanded Sailor Mars as she came to a full stop and noticed the two gaping (and drooling) male occupants of the room… and Hitomi who was watching the aforesaid males with a grin on her face. She brought Van back to earth first, waving a hand over his eyes, "Nothing… let's go…" he said rather dazed, his sword held loosely at his side. Hitomi sighed, shaking her head and Rei grinned at her. She grabbed Van's arm and began dragging him out the door, and Hitomi tackled the blonde guy. Between the two of them, (and Hitomi's directions) they made their way to where both guymellefs were. "Whoa… that's the Escaflowne? It's beautiful!" Mars gaped at the silver-metal of the gleaming guymellef in front of her. "Come on, Van, get on that thing, and you two Alan!" said Hitomi ushering the two of them towards their guymellefs. She rolled her eyes at Sailor Mars. "Don't worry… you'll get used to it."

"Let's hope that's soon." she answered before making for Escaflowne, kicking the metal of its heel and hoping that Van could hear her (who was in pain from kicking a mountain of steel). When she was finally situated in his guymellef's hand, Hitomi looked jealous. She couldn't do anything this time… Alan grinned down at her for a moment before the faceplate slid down and he (carrying in his hand Hitomi, who looked like a miniature nymph) and Van (carrying a pint-sized senshi in comparison to the hulking mass of metal) went into battle.

"Dammit, they've got their stealth cloaks on!" he growled as he turned this way and that trying to find them. _Remember the pendant… swinging… try and sense your target…_ Hitomi's words came back to him and he tried to concentrate. "IN FRONT OF YOU!" yelled Rei as his sword came up, blocking a stream of liquid metal. Wait… hold on. "You can see them?!"

"Of **course** I can see them! I'm not blind… you… know…" she slowed her words, "You mean, you **can't** see them?" He shook his head, and then, realizing she couldn't see his face, yelled, "No. Not if I don't concentrate."

"Then just listen to me!" she yelled back, "Hold on tight!" she advised, bringing her gloved fingers together and yelling, "FIRE… **SOUL**!" Van watched in amazement, as a stream of fire that rivaled those that the enemy guymellefs shot, was launched straight at what seemed to be empty air. The air wavered for a moment before taking on the shape of the guymellef. He saw to his disbelief the drag-energist powering it turn to ashes and the entire machine was immobilized, and crumpled to the ground. The front of the ruined guymellef fell open, and the young boy with rumpled blond hair fell to the ground on his knees, before weakly getting up and staring at the red-swathed girl.

She turned her attention away, he was no longer a threat. Throwing an ofuda, she yelled, "MARS FIREBIRD… **STRIKE**!" (K: Don't know the Japanese one.) A phoenix exploded from the paper, igniting it and flew through several enemy guymellefs, and the drag-energists powering the enemy guymellefs burst into flame, turning into ashes in a few seconds, and the huge machines crumpled to the ground. No guymellef can withstand the amount of fire that Rei held at her fingertips. Soon the enemy retreated. They had won… for now.

Meanwhile, Merelu, back in the Zaibach fortress was sitting in her small cell, her tail twitching in nervousness. What was going to happen to her? Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, she heard voices. "She's in there, Miss." The guard said respectfully and she heard the door open and her claws unsheathe as she readied herself. What she saw shocked her. Silhouetted in the light of the doorway, stood a woman. But this woman had the same ears as her, and a tail swished from behind her. "So you're the one," she said in a soft voice walking towards her. The light faded from behind her, letting her see the woman's features. She was older than herself, but she was… the **same** as her! "You're… you're…" she was able to make out.

"Like you? Yes, little one… come along now." She said, her face breaking into a smile, and her silver hair shining in the last rays of the setting sun from the window in her cell. She got up slowly, still suspicious but followed the cat-woman leading her, past the smirking guard and through the hallways.

"Who… who are you?" she managed to say, through her dry, cracked lips. "My name is Naria. You?"

"Merelu."

"Pretty name." She finally found them stopping in a large room. The tree monster that had attacked her was there and she cowered away from it. But it didn't look a bit sinister it looked rather frightened. But in front of her, she saw a boy standing there, dressed in red armor. She bit her lip as she stared at him through wide eyes. "She's the one?" he asked contemptuously, looking her over. "Yes, Lord Dilandau." replied Naria respectfully as she kept a firm grasp on Merelu's shoulder. "What is she good for, Gandor?" he addressed the tree monster.

"I thought she would be good for questioning. She knows much of the princeling and his friends."

"Tell me then, cat, who is this new girl from the Mystic Moon that my spies have heard of?" Merelu, and even Naria stiffened at being called a cat in such a disagreeable manner, and she stuck out her bottom lip stubbornly. "I don't know." He glared down at her, having little patience. "Tell me now, or you're going to die slowly and painfully…" his eyes brightened at the thought of it. Merelu shook with suppressed fear, but she remained silent. Naria looked worriedly down at her before looking back at Dilandau. "Lord Dilandau, perhaps if we were to question her better…" Dilandau looked disgusted, "You are a fool, Gandor. She refuses to speak." Gandor looked ready to rip her limb form limb if only to keep Dilandau from doing the same to himself. "Sir, she might respond to torture…" he suggested nervously.

"Perfect… Naria?"

"I… I?" she asked, startled. "Yes. You. Make her speak." Naria looked down at the little cat-girl who's big blue eyes were beginning to look hopeless, but no less determined. She bent down towards her, and she said softly, "Tell us something little girl, something about that girl, something that isn't even of great importance and he will stay his hand."

"She's… she's from the Mystic Moon… she's like Hitomi." She said finally looking at Dilandau, hoping he would accept this. "Is this all she knows?" he roared glaring at Gandor. "She lies, Lord. That girl **changed** into some other person. She controlled fire as if it was nothing. She is nothing like the other one."

Merelu paled. "I didn't know that! He… he must've knocked me out before she changed… I don't know that! I don't know anything else!"

Dilandau waved her away, annoyed with her. "Get her out of my sight, Naria. And you Gandor, stay and I'll show you just how much it will hurt to bring such a foolish **cat** to me!"

Not needing to be told twice, Naria and Merelu disappeared. "You're going to stay with me and Aeria." She decided as soon as they were out of hearing. "Lord Folken will surely allow it, if you will not run away." Her eyes narrowed. "And if you should, you would be killed."

"Lord Van will save me!" Naria laughed oddly, "The boy king? He will die by his own brother's hand… he is the one who will need saving in the future." She turned away from the shocked look on Merelu's face and headed towards their quarters, and towards her sister, who might help her explain things as well to the newest addition to their family.

~*~*~*~

"Usagi? Usagi? Usagi, come on, please, wake up!" she could hear Gohan's voice echoing somewhere but it was so far away. "Come on, Usagi, you've got to wake up now!" Trunks' voice mingled with Gohan's, but it was no closer than the other boy's was. She shuddered, and covered her ears in her astral plane, trying to block the sounds of voices that were already coming continually closer. Why should she go back? Back to where there was always pain, endless battles, endless fights… "USAKO!" And… eternal love. She'd forgotten, he'd owed her an explanation. Making her choice, she lifted her hands towards the light, and stepped into a wall of pain. "OW…" she moaned as she sat up dizzily. Vertigo took hold of her, even in a sitting position, and she almost fell over backwards before someone caught her. As soon as the room stopped spinning enough, she recognized Gohan's face, then Trunks… Luna… then the last was her own Mamo-chan's… She blinked hard, and tried to focus. "I'm… I'm sorry." She managed before the person behind her, folded her in his arms. "Mamo-chan?" she asked, looking up at the face of her beloved… wait a minute. She blinked and looked closer. "Mamo-chan… what's wrong?" she asked as she stared at his haggard and pale face, there was concern there, it was plain to see, but…

"It's nothing, listen Usa—"

"Tell me! Now!" she yelled, pulling herself forward so that she almost fell on top of Luna before Trunks grabbed her and steadied her. "I'm… I'm dying little bunny. That's why I didn't want you to be around me when—"

"No! That's impossible, that can't happen… MAMO-CHAN!" she was crying now, and shrieking at the same time, and had thrown herself against his chest and into his arms. "No, no, no. That won't happen, we'll, we'll take you to a doctor, and, and, then you can take medicine and be better again, and then everything will be all right!" she was panicking now, as if he were already dying before her eyes.

"Listen, Usako… there **is** no cure…" he said as softly as possible. "THERE **HAS** TO BE A CURE! JUST **HAS** TO BE A CURE! We were supposed to get married and rule Crystal Tokyo! YOU CAN'T DIE!"

"But I am. And I can't stop that." he said quietly, and everything began falling into place. Luna finally understood and wept as she recalled all that had happened in those two's past. He'd wanted her safe all along, if not physically, emotionally. "Oh, Usagi-chan…" she whispered as Trunks stroked her fur, trying to soothe her as he watched in amazement at the scene unfolding in front of him.

"For now, Usako… let's just… get your crystal and… think about this when we get back, okay?" he finally asked her. "I'm sorry about… what happened back home too." Usagi nodded, her face crumpled and around her blue eyes was a new rim of red. "Right… when we get back…"

She frowned. "What do we do now? Beryl's back, she's out to kill me, and I still don't have my crystal… she's even got Pluto's staff! I'm not powerful enough, and even my moon wand isn't enough to stop Beryl… besides, she can't be healed! She's completely evil!" Mamoru shook his head, "I don't believe she was always evil… but I know she can't be healed by only your wand… even with you crystal. And neither of us is strong enough."

"Then we'll train the both of you." Spoke up Gohan (for the first time) and his voice was quite firm.

She sniffled before asking, "How?"

"Er, first, we'll have to ask my dad." She nodded vigorously. "Fine, then let's call him, and ask for a road map!" she blinked when the two saiyans stared at her. "A what?"

"A… road map? For roads?"

"Sorry, Usagi-chan, but this place is on a completely different planet."

"A different **WHAT**?!"

Goku's face appeared on the com-link, silencing her. "King Kai's." he confirmed after they'd told them everything, "It's the best place for all of you… **including** you and Trunks. You've been slacking off."

"DAD! We've got work! And **school** if you don't remember!" Gohan's father shrugged, "Good luck then." He zipped off leaving the screen blank.

"Okay… so, um, how do we get there?" she asked the two guys. "Er… we don't actually know." They admitted.

"YOU DON'T **KNOW**?!" she repeated, dumbly.

"It seems I shall have to step in once more then," sighed a rather kind and cheerful voice, from out of nowhere. A bright flash of light appeared, blinding all, and when Usagi looked up, there was the shining figure of her mother, as small as a pixie, floating in the air in front of her on miniature wings.

"Okaasan?" asked Usagi, amazed as she stared at the tiny fairy that was her mother. "I've missed you so much, Okaasan!"

Gohan looked confused, "You're telling me, she's your mom from the 21st century?"

"No, I'm her mother from a time that has never been recorded by any man alive." She smiled before addressing her daughter again, "To go to King Kai's, you must go to King Yemma's to ask permission. I shall go with you… but first, I suppose a **change** is in order." She added meaningfully.

"Wait a minute, you mean…"

"Yes, you two, please." The two boys shrugged as Usagi stared at them not understanding. "Huh?"

"You too, dear."

"All right… so, um, Sailor Moon?" Queen Serenity frowned, "I still do not like the idea of a princess prancing around in a skirt shorter than her hair. No, be my daughter as you once were. A princess."

Usagi sighed, "This is a long time away from when you were a kid, Okaasan." She stopped and shuddered, "I don't even want to think about how long ago that was!"

"Do as I say, Serenity-hime and do not ask questions or make comments." commanded her mother rather regally. Usagi sighed, she saw where Luna got her strict attitude from. "Damn this is serious…" she muttered before holding up her wand, and waiting. Nothing happened. "IT'S NOT WORKING!"

"Your crystal, darling, where is it?" Usagi stared at her for a moment before mumbling something. "What was that?"

"So you can't see everything and all."

"I was preoccupied with a… conversation with your father. What has happened?" asked Queen Serenity a slight blush appearing on her face. "Like you and Otousan ever **talked** much."

"You're getting off topic. Where's the ginzoushou?"

"It's… um… not here at the moment…"

"WHAT?!"

"It shattered! That's why I'm here! To get it back!" At this point, Queen Serenity growled something quite un-queen-like and glared. "Then GET IT BACK!" she yelled making all present cringe. She hadn't been a queen for nothing!

"But… Okaasan!"

"Don't you 'Okaasan' me! GET BACK THAT CRYSTAL!" it was amazing how loud that tiny little fairy could yell.

"You heard the woman! Go get that crystal!" suddenly yelled ChiChi from behind them, and who'd been long forgotten. "Mom? You're… not unconscious after seeing her?"

"What are you talking about? She's the b—" she paused confused, before continuing, "woman, who once ruled the moon." she blinked. "Now how would I know that…?" she wondered.

"You had the soul of a queen who'd been captured by me in you. It is natural that you retain some of her memories." Replied the tiny queen smiling, before turning to her daughter. "NOW **MOVE IT**!" she roared, before disappearing into a flare of golden sparkles.

All was silent for a moment, before…

"Man, that's one hell of a mom!" Trunks, always the silence-breaker. Usagi looked weary already. "Trunks, do me a favor and shut up. I do not enjoy getting chewed out by my mother."

"Well, we're off to find those orange rocks again, aren't we?" he asked Gohan cheerfully. The others weren't as perky. "Right… sure…"

~*~*~*~

End of Chapter. All right, all right, I haven't updated for a few days. I'm very busy. And here's your chapter. Happy? Oh and about Queen Serenity? I don't believe that she can be all 'eternally nice, forever calm, forever peaceful, and can never, for all the world become annoyed, upset, or any other human emotion of the sort'. I refuse to believe it. That's too angel-like. And the woman's not that innocent. **REVIEW ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1**


	10. Chapter 9: Gold, Silver, and Pink Unite,...

(Chapter Nine)

"Another one?" asked the golden one as she sat up from where she'd been lounging on a huge pillow-sofa draped in silks. Merelu looked nervous under the cat-woman's searching gaze. She leaned back, "But she is not like us. She is not a 'Gold and Silver Twin'." She looked rather bitter as she pushed back a lock of the said golden hair. Naria smiled, "Some would call us lucky, Sister."

"Anyone who isn't one of us." answered the golden cat-woman softly before shaking her head and said in a different tone altogether. "Why is she here?"

"She is a captive of Gandor."

She snorted, lying back, "A bother, and a poor excuse for a spy." Naria smiled rather wearily, "And he has hurt the little one when he captured her… I hear you and your friend put up a good fight. He is an idiot, but a very strong idiot." She added this to Merelu, who looked up at her with wide eyes. "You were there?"

"No… but more than one spy is always situated together… the last thing we need is information a dead soldier has." Naria led Merelu to a small pillow and seated on one close to it, and began bandaging the several wounds she'd managed to get in the tussle with Gandor. "This is Aeria, my sister. Sister, this is Merelu… she was with the prince and the girl from the Mystic Moon."

"She is one of the enemy? Will Lord Folken allow it?" asked Aeria, startled, and looking suspiciously at Merelu who shrunk away from her gaze. Aeria blinked at stared at her again, even more intensely now, "You… you're that cat that stopped us from killing that prince." She remembered suddenly as she took in the now-ragged clothes that she was wearing. Merelu bit her lip. She would normally not have been scared of Zaibach enemies… but these two were of her own kind, and she felt intimidated by them. Naria shook her head, "I have not gone to him yet… he's still receiving orders from Donkurk." Aeria scrunched up her nose at the sound at that man's name. "Do you believe his Fate-Alteration machine will work?"

"It has worked before… but the ending will not be as he wanted it, I don't think." replied Naria seriously, as she looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Then… why do you follow him?" asked Merelu rather quietly, bold enough to ask a question. Both of the twins turned to her, "We do not follow Donkurk, little one, we follow Lord Folken alone." Merelu bit her lip, "He betrayed Finaalia. He ran away from the task of dragon-slaying." She knew instantly she shouldn't have said this because both of them looked enraged. "Lord Folken would never run away, little one. He found another path to take other than the one that your princeling chose."

Merelu remained silent before saying softly, "Then why did he leave Lord Van? He loved his brother… even if it was so long ago, I remember them… closer than twins." She shook her head, "But then Lord Folken left and Lord Van became obsessed with trying to be better than his brother ever was. He wouldn't run away… and Hitomi tells me that he would've died when he went on the dragon slaying if she hadn't had a vision. He didn't run away…" she suddenly clapped her hands over her mouth. She was spouting more words than she should have!

But Naria smiled kindly, "You are one of us, little one… it is hard not to talk to those of the same kind in a strange world of humans." Merelu looked even more nervous. "It is better not to talk now little one. We will not hurt you, and you must sleep… tomorrow, we will see what will happen to you." Merelu nodded slowly, as she stood up, following Naria into a separate room. "I will have to lock the door," she said apologetically, "but the room is not entirely uncomfortable." On the contrary, it was a lot better than many a night she'd spent with the horses. It suited her just fine. "Thank… thank you." She finally said.

"It is not harmful to befriend those of your kind, little one… but perhaps we should not become too attached to you, one of the enemy…" she paused, "but it sometimes is hard when you're one of the only ones around." She closed the door and Merelu heard the click of the lock as it slid into place. She curled up on the huge pillow and licked her paws surreptitiously. _I'm loyal to Lord Van… he'll come and save me. And maybe those two will forget about Folken and come with me… they're so nice…_

Outside, Aeria was eyeing her sister carefully. "You like her." she accused. "Sister, she is one of us… I've always longed for others like us… you have too."

"But she is one of the enemy. Don't let your guard down."

"I know."

~*~*~*~

"And **what** does this little dot mean? And the arrows?" asked Usagi quizzically as she stared the green screen of the small circular object that Bulma had lent them. Gohan sighed, "Come on… we're going to fly." Usagi looked flabbergasted. "Um… what about Mamo-chan?"

"And me?" asked a dignified cat-guardian. Trunks looked like he'd have a headache. "Damn, I don't like this idea at all… I am **not** carrying a grown man on my back!"

"I second that." commented Mamoru as he eyed the violet-haired boy in distaste, "No offense, but you're not at all like my motorcycle." Usagi groaned. "Not on about that thing again, are you?"

"I'll have you know—"

"Listen, we'll manage as we are okay? Gohan and I will go and you two can bicker, or make out or do whatever the hell you two do, except anything that will damage the apartment." Usagi and Mamoru turned bright red, before Luna leaped primly down between them. "You'll have nothing to fear in **that** section." She told them and Usagi sighed, shaking her head.

To make a long story short, Mamoru and Usagi (more Usagi than Mamoru… or Luna) ate away anything edible in the week that passed, as the two teenage saiyans collected the precious orange spheres with the red stars.

Finally, in the end, they returned carrying the small spheres and laid them out before Usagi's eyes. She blinked as she gazed at them. There was one problem now… "Um, Luna?"

"Yes?"

"How do I get the Rainbow Crystals **out** of them?" she stared at the ten spheres. She picked them up and examined them, rather carefully. "I don't see anything… it's just like the Rainbow Crystal carriers! We can't get them out!" she would've smashed them against the ground in frustration had she not been smart enough to know that would only end in breaking the floor. These things hadn't lasted for centuries for no reason.

"Dear, let me do it." the inevitable flash of light blinded them all as they were too shocked to register the Queen's coming. The tiny fairy appeared again, a miniscule crescent moon glowing on her forehead. In front of them, the Dragon balls began to sparkle, and their forms seemed to liquefy, wavering as if a mirage, and from the wavering, intangible forms, seven bright sparkles of different lights shot upwards, hovering over the ten Dragon balls. With a swift movement of her hands, they melded into a bright white light, and a shining crystal appeared in the air. "The wand! Quickly!" she said as Usagi held up the pink plastic-looking wand. It floated out of her hand, and the crystal floated into its place in the crescent moon of the wand.

This time, she didn't even need to think about it. Usagi was brought to her feet, as the magic seemed to crush her mind, before she appeared as Serenity-hime, the princess of the moon.

"Wow… I've seen you so many times looking like that… and you still amaze me every time I see it."

Usagi grinned at him her hand on the moon wand. "I did it!" she yelled triumphantly. Queen Serenity sighed before getting back to business. "Mamoru-san, become as you were when you courted my daughter on the moon. And you two," she grimaced as she looked over their rugged appearances, "you are not royalty, nor do you look it, but please, impress King Yemma as much as you can."

A finger-snap later, they were in a huge hall, with a huge man sitting at a huge desk with huge stacks of paper surrounding him. The little fairy that was Queen Serenity was gone, and they stared looking like ants in the middle of the large hall. "Oh, come now little ones, please, present yourselves." sighed a voice recognized as Queen Serenity's, as the now-huge queen loomed over them with an amused look on her face.

****

POP!

The four (and one feline) stared at each other as they reached the gigantic size Usagi's mother as well and presented themselves in front of King Yemma. With a lot of persuading, they finally managed to be allowed to get to King Kai's. After this, Queen Serenity was cursing under her breath as she followed them all to the edge of Snake's Way. It was hard to believe this kind woman cursing, but cursing she was, and all knew that King Yemma had been putty in her hands, but that didn't mean he hadn't tried to persuade her to marry himself (even if she was dead) and stay with him for all eternity. It had been quite amusing to watch this and how Queen Serenity and practically screamed the word "**NO!!!!!!**" in his face. He got the message soon enough and grudgingly let them go.

Usagi grinned changing out of her princess dress into normal, everyday Sailor Moon. They were off with a wave and a goodbye and Queen Serenity stomped back in the palace before disappearing entirely when she saw King Yemma coming towards her. No one noticed the tiny figure of a fairy slip through the doors and towards the moon with a shower of small, miniscule sparkles. 

And along Snake Way (which neither Sailor Moon, nor Luna enjoyed running on something as narrow, without railings, and sharp-edged as Snake Way), the five beings were running across the twisting, turning, silver walkways of Snake Way. After about fifteen minutes of running, Sailor Moon stopped. "WHO**EVER** DECIDED THAT SAILOR SENSHI HAD TO WEAR HIGH HEELS SHOULD BE **SHOT**!" she yelled rubbing her foot. "Deal with it… we have a long way ahead of us."

"Damn this whole bloody mission," she grumbled, "we have the crystal, so why the hell are we going to this stupid planet for?!"

"Because… Dad said so. And so did your mom." replied Gohan easily as they raced along. "Unlike you, I am not used to killing myself in a marathon."

"I'm surprised, you do very well when on your way to school."

"I **do** get tired, y'know."

"Hard to believe." teased Mamoru, slipping into the old banter the two of them always exchanged. (K: Usagi got **way** to lovey-dovey after the R series… *sigh*)

"We're there!" yelled Gohan suddenly coming to a sudden stop. So did Trunks. So did Mamoru. So did Luna. So did…

…

Er, so **didn't** Sailor Moon as she wobbled and fell quite quickly towards the green-covered planet.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Mamoru sighed, shaking his head. "She has no idea whatsoever about delicacy."

"Nope."

"Don't think so."

"Assuredly not."

With a sigh, the three males, and the cat, leaped for the green planet, falling towards it just as the sailor-suited figure of a girl had moments earlier. Now, as anyone who've ever known anything about our friend, King Kai's little planet, knows how small, how dense, and how much gravitational force is on it. So, when they'd landed, they found Sailor Moon, her butt high in the air, and her face buried in the grass. "MMMFFF!!!!!!!!!!!" she was yelling into the dirt. They of course, were not much help. Gohan and Trunks fell to their knees and poor Mamoru found himself squashed against the ground. Luna was not much better off and she was lying on Mamoru's head, unable to get up, and unable to move and get off him.

Something poked Sailor Moon's head. Then poked it again. "MMFF MFF FF MFFFMFFF MFF MFF MMMMFFFF!!!!" (Translation: I'm not bunny in a cage!) In other words, she didn't like to be poked and prodded. She found herself, being turned over and she wrenched her squashed eyelids upwards, to see who had so kindly allowed her to breathe again… "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she shrieked and Gohan and Trunks (with better viewing capacity than Mamoru) looked up suddenly. "IT'S A MONKEY!" the monkey shrieked along with her dancing lightly away, leaving all else to gaze in wonder at its ability.

"Ah, so I see you've all met Bubbles! Welcome!" came a (slightly) squeaky voice and she found herself staring at a huge blue face complete with round sunglasses. "AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" she shrieked again, leaving sweatdrops trailing from behind the heads of all present. "Hey Usagi, relax, it's only King Kai."

"ONLY King Kai?! Why you little whelp, I'll have you know—"

"Hey, Dad told us to come and train here… you mind helping us out?" Gohan asked, interrupting whatever sarcastic comment was about to fly from Trunks' mouth.

"Your dad? Well, that's not much business… wait. Your dad is **Goku** isn't he?" he asked inquisitively as he stared at Gohan's hair, and Gohan self-consciously tried to flatten it back down on his head.

"Yes, please Mr. Kai, sir, it would be a great help." called Usagi from farther off where she couldn't get up.

"'Mr. Kai sir'?!" shrieked the blue-skinned blob. "Yeah… isn't King your name?" The fat alien stared at her for a few seconds looking like he might explode and Gohan and Trunks (as well as Mamoru for all he could do) attempted to get up to their feet in order to stop whatever this guy was planning.

King Kai exploded into a series of high-pitched giggles. "You pass! You pass!" Usagi looked confused, "Great… I think."

He then turned to the rest of them, "Now it's your turn. Make me laugh and I'll train you!" Gohan finally managed to struggle to his feet (to King Kai's amazement) as well as Trunks. Mamoru made it to his knees. And Luna… well Luna made it to her feet and to her own amazement, managed her way just as lightly as if she were still on the moon. She blinked and realized something, "A Moon cat has her own balance of gravity… I was simply too used to Earth's gravity." King Kai grinned down at her, "You're a smart little kitty… oh dear, you've got a bald spot on your forehea—ah!!!!" he yelled as Luna leaped for the kill if Trunks hadn't reached out and grabbed her by the tail. "Luna, don't kill the guy before he tells us what to do."

"It's NOT A BALD SPOT!" she yelled, completely undignified now as she raked at the air with her claws, despite Trunks' restraining hold on her tail. Trunks sighed before picking her up and placing her on the ground, "We all know that, and it's a very nice crescent moon and all, but this guy doesn't know you well enough yet." Then he, Gohan and Mamoru managed one way or another to make the guy laugh.

"All right… now your training begins." Sailor Moon, with one arm on Gohan's shoulders, one arm on Trunks' shoulders, and half-leaning on Mamoru (who was quite strong enough to stand up and walk… heavily) she was able to get up. "Your first task…" began King Kai as they waited with mounted suspense, "is…" they listened even more closely, "to catch Bubbles!" he announced happily, and giggling at his own wit (or so he thought) as they all face-vaulted.

"You… you can't be serious."

"I am serious. Catch him."

"Okay…"

"GOT YOU!"

"YOU'RE MINE!"

"THERE!"

When all males had finished, there was only Usagi left, who was struggling to even stand up straight, never mind **move**. "Your turn."

The monkey lightly danced around her, making unintelligible little hooting sounds or something, mocking her. She stood completely still, seeming to ignore the monkey. It danced a little closer, wondering what was wrong with this pig-tailed human. He came closer and yanked at a ponytail that had flipped over her shoulder and fell in front of her. She still did nothing. Soon enough, the monkey began playing with the gold hair—WHOMP!

Muffled squeaks and shrieks came from the monkey, trapped under Usagi's body, flattening it. "I GOT IT!" she yelled back at them, releasing the monkey (who resembled a pancake) and standing up again. Luna dropped her head on her paws. Her charge would never grow up to be a graceful young lady it seemed.

And so, the training wore on…

~*~*~*~

"Go! Go! Go!" yelled Alan to his troops as they boarded the floating ship. "We've got to find Merelu!" murmured Hitomi, her face in her hands as she stared at them from the Crusade, floating close by. Rei screamed, as she was knocked forward by someone flinging her out of his or her way. The impact thrust her into Van, who's back was towards her. She knocked them both off balance, and both fell to the floor. As if out of nowhere, a narrow hole appeared, and they fell through the ground itself, and the hole closed itself, as if nothing had been there at all. Alan turned just in time to see them fall. "Shit." he muttered as he whipped his sword around to face another opponent. After the young boy fell, he turned and ran back to where both Rei and Van had disappeared. 

The ground was solid but he desperately kicked at it with his boot. He suddenly grunted in pain when a solid object connected with the back of his skull. He turned to face another soldier with a sword in hand and a triumphant look on his face. It was too late to slash with his sword and the hilt of the sword knocked him out cold.

"Rei? Rei! Hey, Rei-san, wake up!" a voice sounded in her head. She groaned and her eyelids fluttered open. She blinked and focused on the blurry image of Van's anxious face, as it became clearer. She sat up and looked around, rubbing the side of her head. "What the hell happened?" she asked. He shrugged and his tense face relaxed only a little now that he knew Rei was all right.

Rei stood up, leaning against a wall. She was holding her head again, but this time the sudden flashing pain was familiar and her eyes widened as she stared into nothingness, breathing heavily as Van watched her, amazed. When finally, she snapped out of it, she began to look around as if half mad. "She's close by!" she whispered, "Merelu, she's close by… and with her own kind."

"With her… own kind?" Van gaped, "You mean… those two twins? The Good-luck soldiers?!"

"They had, gold… and silver hair."

"Naria and Aeria then." He said, looking grim as he held tightly on to his sword. Rei nodded as she turned to lead the way.

Unknown to them, deep in the recesses of the fortress, the Fate-Alteration device was doing the same thing that it had done to bring apart Hitomi and Van before… and bringing Alan into the picture.

"Wait!" yelled Van as he grasped onto her arm. "What?" she asked confused as she found herself strangely drawn back towards him. "I don't want to go anywhere… not yet." Rei looked at him, amazed. "What?! We're in the middle of an enemy fortress and you say this?!" Van said nothing, but brought her lips to his and she stood there, shell-shocked as she felt a strange emotion running through her. "No…" she gasped as she yanked herself away. "This is not going to happen." She said breathlessly as Van stared at her, confused. "You don't care about me, you love Hitomi!" she said quickly, explaining.

"I don't care about her—"

"Yes you do! I don't know what—" she narrowed her eyes as she felt that strange surging of that tingling emotion run through her again. Van, coming closer, and the nearing proximity was such a heavy temptation that she hesitated for a moment, letting him make his way in front of her. "No…" she whispered, grasping for something. "Stay **away** from me!" she yelled, and her voice echoed through the halls. Donkurk, watching the scene unfold looked in shock. It had worked perfectly before with the other girl from the Mystic Moon… what was happening with this one. "Rei-"

"AKURYO TAISAN!" she yelled, shoving a piece of paper at his forehead. He stopped in his tracks, and Donkurk looked in horrified amazement as sparks flew from the fate-alteration machine, and the image wavered, before disappearing. "NO!" he yelled, "The Dragon is not under our influence any longer… kill him!" he yelled, and the orders were immediately obeyed as extra soldiers ran for the abandoned corridor.

Van blinked as he looked up at the piece of paper sticking to his forehead, and then Rei, breathing hard and looking as angry as hell. "What happened?" he asked before she turned. "Nothing. Something about this place creeps me out, and you were under someone else's influence. I hold no blame on you." She continued on her way and he followed, rather slowly, staring in confusion.

~*~*~*~

Sailor Moon suddenly stopped, still as can be. She'd found out, somewhere during her training that she was just like Luna. The gravity didn't have to affect her like this. So she had been currently sparring with Trunks. "No!" she shrieked, stopping and not avoiding or blocking a hit from Trunks who didn't notice anything until she'd flown for several yards. Mamoru immediately made his way towards her. "Usako!"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" she shrieked, pushing him away. But as always, it was too late. The others had gathered, (except for King Kai who was too slow as he waddled over). "STAY AWAY!" she shrieked again, even as a red light enveloped them all, and turned into a huge bubble. It flew up and out of the small planet's atmosphere, bypassing Snake Way completely. "What the HELL?!" yelled Trunks as he looked at the surrounding galaxies and shooting stars that they were passing. Gohan was trying to punch through the red globe, but it was harder than glass (which is what it looked like) and he succeeded only in injuring his fist. Usagi had collapsed in Mamoru's lap… they both remembered this. "No, it won't work like that…" she said looking up suddenly. She took off her tiara as it became a glimmering golden disk. "MOON TIARA **MAGIC**!" she yelled, flinging it at the wall. To her surprise, it broke through, the entire ball shattered around them, and gravity took hold of them again.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" she shrieked as she fell through the air as a peculiar feeling of déjà vu came to her. But this time no Goku would be catching her… well, here goes nothing… "MOON ETERNAL **MAKE-UP**!" she yelled, hoping it would work. Pluto had once told her about this transformation and she'd never tried it, knowing it was way out of her league. Could she handle it?

She looked, and felt different. It was exhilarating, this new power… but it was also draining. She folded her wings into a dive as she raced to catch up to Mamoru, and perhaps Luna. Gohan and Trunks were out of sight, and since they could fly, she hoped that they were. Flying that is.

"MAMO-CHAN!" she shrieked, beating her wings harder as she caught Luna in one arm, and continued in the fast-paced spiral dive in order to catch up to her lover. "Usako!" he yelled back as he continued to fall helplessly towards the quickly nearing ground. With one final burst of strength, she grabbed his hand, and stopped her downward suicide spiral in midair, jerking both of their arms till she wondered if she could hear her bones rattling. She was already feeling faint, and as she made her way towards a sturdy tree branch, she found the dizziness overwhelming. As soon as they landed, her fuku disappeared, not Eternal Sailor Moon, nor Sailor Moon. But Tsukino Usagi.

She was too weak to keep up the transformation. _And at the worst of times too,_ she thought distantly as she heard the shrieking of youma. _They're coming…_ but she slipped thankfully into the peaceful darkness and felt nothing more.

"Usako! Wake up!"

"Usagi-chan!"

"Yo, Usa, come on snap out of it! Those things are coming!"

"Usagi!"

All of them took turns shaking the unconscious girl as Mamoru watched the quickly approaching army of youma. "Dammit, this is going to be one hell of a fight." His already pale face looked even paler than usual, and he fell back against the trunk of the tree in a fit of coughing. Usagi winced at the hacking coughing and she hugged him, gently, not as hard as she usually would have. "Oh, Mamo-chan… you should've **told** me."

"You'd have been sad, just like you are now." He said, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes and grinning rather ruefully, "I didn't do a very good job, did I, Usako?"

"Thank goodness for your bad acting skills." she joked rather weakly, as the ever-approaching army had most of her focus. Trunks looked with a raised eyebrow, "They can't be too hard to beat can they?"

"Normally they wouldn't… but they've got the power of time on their hands… and that's not a good thing."

"No, **hime** it's not." agreed a voice behind them, and Usagi whirled, and ducked just in time to avoid getting her head sliced off her shoulders along with the top half of the tree trunk.

"So I've found you finally, cowering behind your friends. Again." Usagi bit her lip and looked rather nervous. "And **you** Beryl, are hiding behind a greater power than your own. Again."

"Why you pompous little—!"

"I'll fight you then, and we shall see who wins." Interrupted Usagi and she pressed something into Mamoru's gloved hand. She held up the glimmering crystal in her hand. "With this, Beryl… with this I'll send you back to the Underworld!" she screamed, thrusting her fisted hand in the air. "MOON PRISM POWER!" a bright flash of light later and the sailor-suited heroine appeared in front of her.

"This is a suicidal battle little girl… there's no way you'll win."

"I know… but if it'll stop you, then I have no regrets." Beryl hesitated for only a second as a sudden visage of Neo-Queen Serenity in all her glory appeared in front of her, disappearing in a split second, but enough for Sailor Moon to send her first "MOON TIARA MAGIC!" flying at her face.

"You're a pathetic pest and you know very well who's going to win—hey!" she yelled, as a ball of some glowing blue energy singed her auburn hair. "What is this?!" she surveyed the damage to the lengthy cloak that was her hair. She glared at Gohan who'd unleashed the blast. "Stay out of this," she hissed before smashing the small golden tiara-discus with her staff away like it was nothing.

The battle was over quickly. None of them could really remember what had happened. Gohan found a brilliant red light illuminating Sailor Moon's body, Trunks saw Beryl choking the life out of her, Luna saw only the flare of the moon crescent on the princess's forehead and disappear slowly, and Mamoru… Mamoru saw the red cord that tied her to him in some other space entirely snapped, sending him into streaks of pain.

Whatever happened, Usagi fell to the ground, her body smashing against the rocks, battered and bruised. The screams of all of them echoed over the rocks as the evil Queen laughed, and her laughter rang triumphantly throughout the land, and all of her own youma trembled in awe at the power in her voice. "See how well you can defeat me now, Moon brat!" she yelled disappearing in a fold of darkness that appeared out of nowhere.

Mamoru couldn't believe it. In that small, insignificant battle, his love, his salvation, and his future wife had disappeared from him. "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled skyward as he leaped down from the tree, ignoring the scraping of the crags beneath his feet as he raced to her sprawled body. She was already gone. No last gasping words like any of the manga heroines that she loved to read. She was already gone. The tortured yelled of a lover torn from his only loved wrenched the heavens apart, and in response the moon turned a blood red somewhere in the distant past, to mourn its mistress.

~*~*~*~

End of Chapter! Finally! You proud of me? You'd better be! Review!


	11. Chapter 10: Rei Spells it Out for Van, A...

(Chapter Ten)

"Rei! Please, tell me. What did I say?" pleaded Van. Why were women always so damn confusing?! Rei turned back to Van. "I told you. It was absolutely nothing. I think someone's trying to play us like puppets." 

"What… what are you talking about?"

"You. Coming on to me."

"I… I what?" he asked rather blankly as the more up-to-date vernacular flew right over his head.

"You want a demonstration or what?" she snarled, at the end of her tether. She did **not** want someone toying with her feelings and the person who did was going to go up against a priestess/psycho bitch ready to rip out the guy's testicles [1] (she knew for certain it was a guy).

"Sorry…"

She breathed in deeply and attempted to keep her cool. "Someone's been playing with fate I think… and I don't like it."

"Fate…" sudden comprehension dawned on the guy's face. "Oh no, not that damn thing again…" he groaned. She raised an eyebrow, "So I see you've been fooled before?"

"Not me… Hitomi." He looked away, his face suddenly crimson. Rei smiled, she was no Minako, but what girl didn't love matchmaking? With the exception of Ami of course… but she needed to know more. "Well, what happened?" He gritted his teeth and began to tell her what had happened "last time".

"Then when I got all worried about her and ran out to look for her in the rain…" he noticed Rei's faint smile. He never knew the thought floating in her head,_ Aw… the guy's a romantic!_ "Hey! She would've been freezing out there!" he interrupted himself defensively as he stopped physically from walking as well, mistaking her smile.

"Go on."

"Well… I went out looking for her… and I found her, right at dawn, on the bridge, and her and Alan…" he lapsed into silence.

"I see…" Rei bit her lip. "You know what I've got to say?"

"What?"

"I'm not Love Goddess like Minako-chan back home, but I can tell you something I've noticed. Hitomi doesn't know it yet, but I'm pretty sure she's crazy about you."

"But Alan—"

"Alan, I think is a rather confused man. A hot, cute, adorable, charming man, but one with a past that I don't think he likes. And I'm pretty sure he's got his hands full with that Millerna girl we met in Asturia."

"She's married."

"I know. You told me… but he's found love once, and lost it. I'm psychic. I should know. And the thing didn't work on me because they tried to put a second gravity on a girl from Earth… or the Mystic Moon in your words. Too bad it'll only work on a girl **from** Earth… I'm originally from Mars." At his shocked look, she shook her head, smiling.

"Don't you see? It's hard for people to admit to themselves the truth. Hitomi is a girl of fate herself, and to be manipulated by fate… it's impossible. Nothing that wasn't there already can't appear out of nowhere."

"So she really loves Alan then." The young man looked crestfallen, and his gloved hand on the hilt of his sword tightened.

"She does. But it's doubtful her love for him is that strong… those people simply brought out that emotion **directly** towards that one person." Shrugging, she added, "It's complicated, but don't rely on everything I say is true… it's just that I've noticed a lot."

Van nodded slowly. "I think I understand… a little." He flashed a rare smile… he always seemed so **serious**. "Thanks."

"No problem. But if I don't survive this, I'm dragging you to court."

"What?"

"Nothing… absolutely nothing." Then she, in all her sailor-suited splendor burst into a sprint, and he found himself staring at the very short skirt that flew up and down according to her rhythm. He immediately averted his eyes and held his nose, just **waiting** for the nosebleed. Thankfully, it didn't come. Rei would probably have smacked her if she had noticed. Keeping his eyes on the ground, he followed her, soon catching up. (Who wouldn't, really? She's wearing high heels. Those things were **made** to wrench someone's heel off.)

"Well, well, well, Alan Schezar, knight of Kaeli." One of the burlier guards stood over the tied up knight. Alan found this disgraceful, and he glared up at the guard as the big man yanked at his long hair, calling him a girl. "You shameful coward, fight me like a knight instead of this cowardly behavior." he growled at the guard, he had come to and found that he was absolutely defenseless… his sword was thrown carelessly on the floor several meters away. Impossible to get to.

"Well… I **would**, but I know very well that I am not willing to take you on, and perhaps lose you… Lord Dilandau would not be pleased."

The door opened, and another guard appeared in the doorway, dragging someone kicking and making muffled sounds that sounded like screams in a gag. "Found this little lady along the way back home… the guy was easy to take care of." Alan's eyes nearly burst out of his skull. When the young woman was flung into full view, and the light blonde hair shone in the square of sunlight from the window, he gasped. _Princess Millerna!_

"What the hell are you doing, bringing a girl here? She can't fight!"

"Better not let the boss hear you saying that… or near the twins."

"The twins? Are you kidding me, I could take them any day."

"Take them in what way, hmm?"

"In any way I want to." bragged the first soldier, puffing out his chest in pride and Millerna, even behind the gag, grimaced at the dirty comment. She looked up at the other prisoner, and her eyes, if it seemed impossible to widen them before, there was no comparison to how wide they were now.

A warning look, made her look away quickly, and she looked back worriedly at the guard. "Well then, you haven't told me what you're going to do with her. We're in the middle of a goddamned war if you still haven't noticed." The other guard looked slightly ashamed before lashing out at the first guy in the way all men do when cornered. "Well what else could I do?! Their ship caught sight of us and we had to destroy it. This lady got loose, and I just brought her along!"

"No need to bring her INTO the fortress!"

"Then let's just throw the two into the dungeon and be done with it!"

"In the same cell?"

"Hey, this guy's one of the more 'honorable' knights. I don't think he'd try anything… besides, even if he did, why do you care?"

The other guy shrugged, "No reason, just thought it better to leave a lady some respect."

"Hey, she's a stupid little girl who managed to get caught. There's no use wasting sympathy on her. Let's go." 

The two of them were dragged rather uncomfortably through several long corridors until they reached an metal door, shod with iron nails. "No way you can get out of this one you two. Have a nice stay!" cackled the guard at the door, shoving them both in and locking it behind them. Footsteps, many of them, signaled that all three were gone… they had better things to do.

"Mmmf, mmff!"

"Come closer, I might be able to work that gag of." She managed to half-crawl her way over and he managed to stand up (not an easy feat, I assure you) and worked his hand at the not-too-clean cloth that tied around the back of her head. This was not an easy task, especially when your hands are tied behind your back, giving you minimum leverage, and the inability to see what you're doing.

"MMFF!"

"What!"

"MFF MFF MF MMMF!"

"I pulled your hair?"

"MMF!"

"I apologize." After many attempts, the gag was off, and Millerna took a deep breath. "Now will you tell me what you're doing here? This place is dangerous and I was assured that you knew so!"

"Hey, it wasn't **my** idea, Dryden dragged me along!" tears suddenly seemed to flood her eyes as she spoke the other man's name. "What happened to him?" asked Alan, a sudden fear lancing through his heart. "That guard… he… he went and shoved his sword through Dryden's chest. I couldn't even get close enough to see the damage. Then they flung him over the edge of the ship and… well, knocked me out." Only then did Alan see the bruise forming on the delicate skin, just at the base of her neck, her hair having been pushed up over her shoulder from the fall.

"Well I told you why **I** was here… it's your turn."

"I was trying to help Van save Merelu."

"The cat?"

"Yes."

Millerna frowned, "I saw her just before I was thrown into the same room as you… she was walking around wearing some white bodysuit thing with these two other cat-women."

"WHAT?!"

"Shh! Not so loud!"

"What are you talking about? She's not hurt, tied up or anything?"

"I didn't think so… not from what I could see." Alan lapsed into silence before he noticed Millerna fidgeting, appearing to get in a better position. "It won't help if you struggle, they were experts at tying the knots. If only I had my sword…"

"That's what I'm trying to get, silly!"

"You have my sword?" he asked dumbly, wondering what she was talking about. "No! But I do have a knife… that I can't reach."

"Where is it?"

"I'm not telling." Millerna crimsoned and looked away. "Princess Millerna, now is not the time to be hiding things from me, where is it? I might be able to get it."

"It's not modest." She sniffed, still not looking at him… the blush was quite visible now.

"Please, it could be our only hope." She turned to face him, "Think Alan… where on a woman's body would a guard fail to check over for weapons?" Alan looked rather dumbfounded and remained silent. She sighed in impatience. "It's in the front of my corset, silly! That's why he overlooked it!" she hissed, rather fed up.

This time it was Alan who crimsoned. "Oh." He muttered beneath his breath. "In that case… never mind."

Silence was prevalent for a few minutes before Millerna finally said, "Fine Alan, get it out."

"It's not decent."

"Please?"

"You're married."

"Never stopped you from touching Sister, did it?" she muttered spitefully. His eyes widened, "What did you know about that?"

"A diary. And the little Prince… it was quite obvious. Now… back to the issue in question…"

"Princess Millerna…"

"Okay fine. Listen up Alan Shezar, I'm taking a leaf out of Hitomi's book. I am sick and tired of being tied up like a hog, and the only way to get me free is if you would give up your stupid ethics, reach down my blouse and my corset and get that knife and get us free!"

He turned red now, and he couldn't seem to meet the blue fire that was flaming in her eyes. "But…"

"As long as you watch what you're doing, I'll be fine with it."

"I… very well." He sighed heavily, wondering what this little encounter would do to his self-constraint. Hesitantly, he stood and turned his back, so that his hands could um… work. As he reached, trying to look over his shoulder at what he was doing and failing miserably, he touched her skin, and she stifled a yelp. "Did I not tell you to watch where to put your hands?!"

"I can't see!" he protested, defensively. She gritted her teeth and finally said, "Fine. I'll direct you." Staring at her own chest while a man, much less Alan Shezar, the man she'd loved for so long and had spurned her every approach, was never one of her favorite things to do. "A little to the left… yes there." he reached downwards, but felt the fabric of her dress, and the soft lace of something else against her skin. "It's **underneath** my corset."

Finally, after man attempts, and several movements that went awry, he was finally about to get out the knife in its little scabbard. With a flick of his hand, he unsheathed it, flinging it up in the air and strategically placing his hands (with Millerna watching in half-fear, that he would be stupid enough to have a wrist impaled on a small knife). The blade sliced through the ropes and buried the tip in the floor. Most of the robes had been cut through, and he was easily able to rip the other ones (tied by only a few strands in the twisted rope) apart. He rubbed his wrists… those guys knew how to make good knots.

"Forgetting someone here?" asked a rather sarcastic voice. He smiled, his crew didn't call her a tomboy princess for nothing. "Of course not." he said gallantly, as if the past few minutes hadn't happened. She hid her face from him, careful so he couldn't see the blush staining her cheeks. She was quickly out of the bonds and she rubbed her wrists, wincing as she noted the red chafing that had appeared. She hadn't been wearing gloves when they'd attacked.

"So… how do we get out of here?" she finally as quietly, looking out the one small window at the bright sun. It seemed to be the only cheerful thing in that room, and she didn't know whether or not to be pleased or displeased over it.

"I don't know…" he grew silent. Soft, muffled footsteps were approaching and he quickly silenced the beginning of a question from Millerna. A queer scratching came at the door, "Alan? Is that you?" the queer little-girl voice was strange in such a gloomy fortress. "Merelu?" he exclaimed as quietly as he could.

"It **is** you!"

"I have… friends here now. I don't want you to get hurt… if I let you out… will you go?"

"Merelu, we can't leave you." stated Alan, standing at the door. "You know it's impossible to leave you in a Zaibach fortress!"

"I know… but Lord Folken… I really do think he still loves his brother, and Lord Van still loves him too… if I stay, maybe they can be family again."

Alan was silent for a moment before reasoning, "Van would never leave and you know that. He's set on getting you back!" 

"I can't leave… not yet. Naria and Aeria trust me now… more. And… well… I trust them. I'm finally with… family."

"Merelu!"

"Shh! The others will come soon. Go quickly!" the door was unlocked silently, and they found her standing there, strangely different from the scruffy little kitty they'd known before. Perhaps it was the clothes, but she looked like she'd grown several inches, wearing something white, similar to those that the Intensified Luck Soldiers wore. Her dark pink hair, previously flaring around her face in an unkempt tangle, was now smooth and straight and fell down her back making it look longer than it truly was.

"Now hurry! Or they'll begin to suspect." She bounded out of sight. Alan smiled, even with the new clothes and everything… she still refused to run and walk **normally**. "At the least if I can't get her out… I will save you no matter what." he told Millerna, picking up the sword lying on the ground that Merelu had so graciously found and brought.

"Then we'd better… go?" she asked hesitantly, not wanting to leave Merelu. "The little one's made her choice… and I'm sure she'll be fine." The two of them ran for it down the opposite way that Merelu had gone… no need to stick her with the blame just yet.

~*~*~*~

What seemed like a bolt of lightning zinged through his brain, making his eyes widen despite himself. He literally collapsed against a large column, holding his head, and between the gloved fingers and behind the white domino mask, they saw his blue eyes widened and straining as if with some internal pain.

"Your Highness!" gasped Pluto running to him, her chain of keys jangling at her waist. The Royal Guardian of Time had **never** seen him like this… it was like his entire soul was being torn apart. "Sere… no… you can't… you can't leave me."

Chibi-Usa, in all her princess glory, playing with both Saturn and Hotaru (she never did forget about their friendship) in the garden fell amongst the flowers, her face masked in the same shocked expression. "No… Usagi's stronger than that… **MOMMY**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She began sobbing her little heart out on Hotaru's lap (she was closer) and the older girl hugged her, like she had always used to. "Shh… don't cry Princess… you must be strong now… be strong… because soon enough, you might not exist. No more tears now, we have to find your father." Saturn and Hotaru both levered the sniffling princess to her feet. They understood her grief… minimally. They were not she. They would never know that kind of grief.

"What has happened?!" gasped Mercury, falling to her knees in front of her King. "Tell us… what happened?" the worry in her eyes was more than enough for her, and the flash of attraction that always accompanied any look at her disappeared in the ocean of his grief. "It's Sere… she's gone." he responded dully, the pain disappearing, but leaving him strangely empty. Her presence was gone.

"No… no… not the Queen…" Pluto hid her face behind her glove-covered hands… she wouldn't let them see her tears. Without her Time Staff, she could not change the direction the river of time was flowing…

The air around the city of Crystal Tokyo thickened and started to quiver, as if seen in the heat of a desert. The people ran out of houses, stared around them, and began panicking, running towards the castle and crowding around the gates, the guards barely able to keep them from running in, being more than a little frightened themselves. "ROYAL SENSHI! HELP US! SAVE US!" the cries were hard to bear, and they were even harder to know that there was nothing they could do. "What's happening?!" gasped Minako staring around her, leaning heavily on her future counterpart.

"The future as we know it is disappearing. We're trapped in it." replied Pluto and Setsuna dully. The tall, graceful arches of the castle towers of the royal palace were already disappearing slightly, and they could only see a transparent mist of what was left of them.

"Could you two be able to freeze time? Stop it? Perhaps if we right this somehow…"

Setsuna frowned, "It is possible to **slow** it down… not to stop it. But… the Neo-Queen and the Princess is still dead."

"She would never die like that," Endymion finally spoke, "her **body** is gone… but her soul still lives in the crystal. If somehow, we can make her find herself, find her body… and well… she only has a slim chance…" he trailed off.

"Then there's no time to lose. If even a slim chance remains…" Pluto grasped Setsuna's hands. "Transform." She ordered her duplicate, and with a few gestures, the two were standing there, exactly alike, except for the chain of keys on the waist of the Royal senshi.

Twin symbols flared on their foreheads, igniting and glowing as what seemed to be images of clocks, hourglasses, sundials… anything related to time seemed to flow around them, distant images like wisps of fog. With a flare of light, the entire scene seemed to freeze, and the disintegration slowed. Everyone present saw suddenly a huge hourglass, and the golden grains of sand flowing downwards began a trickle.

"We have to hurry… we don't have much time." With a snap of her fingers, Pluto took a key from her belt. "It's very risky… and without my Time Staff…" she shook her head. "CRYSTAL KEY! TAKE US TO THE QUEEN!" with a glowing of pink, clouds formed above them, and they floated towards it. Hoping, all the way, that they would find her, despite the vortex of time that would always be pulling them away.

~*~*~*~

"USAGI! Shit, where the hell did she **go**?!" yelled Trunks in frustration. After finally driving all the monsters away, they had returned to where they'd hidden Usagi's body, to find that the entire place had been ransacked, plants and trees ripped from their roots. And her body gone. 

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" a shrill shriek came **literally** landing in their ears. "What the—OOF!" came the reply as a rather disgruntled Minako was dumped unceremoniously on top of Gohan. "OW! Hate to tell you, but you are **not** a pillow!"

"I never advertised myself **as** one. Mind getting off?"

"OH! Sorry." Minako managed to scramble up off him, and trying to catch her balance while not upsetting any of her wounds at the same time. "Whoa… what happened to you?"

"Got into shit with a youma… Mamoru-san?!" she gaped at the sight of him. The young man looked up wearily, his eyes ringed with despair and a crumpled rose in his hand. 

"Usako's gone." He told her bleakly. Minako found the tears had returned to her eyes and she wiped them furiously away, "Yeah… I know." She answered softly. 

Gohan, who had been so ingeniously forgotten turned his attention to the other people still getting up from their short falls onto the grass just a little away from a jagged patch of rocks. He grimaced, if they'd come only a few meters closer to where he was standing…

"WOW! He is so **CUTE**!" squealed one of them, with hair pulled hurriedly into a ponytail staring dreamily at Trunks (who had come over to see who they were, and play innocent bystander). He looked back at her rather confused. "I'm sorry… what?" He was quite used to be admired by the female half of the world, but usually not in the middle of a pile of groaning people on the ground from a fall from the sky. "Hi, I'm Sailor Jupiter, Royal Senshi and Protector of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion, sworn enemy to the Negaverse, and fighter for Crystal Tokyo." She held out her gloved hand and he shook it rather slowly, wondering how she fit all that in a mouthful.

"Uh… yeah… I'm Trunks."

"Trunks? Really? Wow, that's such a cool name! You know I once knew a guy named Trunks, he was actually kinda cute but then he dumped me so I guess he doesn't look so cute after all, so you look much better!" He blinked. And blinked again. "I'm sorry… what?"

"Oh Mr. Trunks, Mr. Trunks!" Within seconds, he found the green-swathed Amazoness beauty shoved out of the way and was replaced by a blue-haired water sprite. "You look like a very mature and wondrous example of the male species, and I noticed that you have exceptional strength from what we have heard, do you mind if I make a case study of you—!" this one was immediately shoved out of the way as well.

"Shut it Ames, he's no biology project! Oh Trunks-baby! Hi, I'm Sailor Venus, V for short, it's **so** nice to meet you! What do you think about-hey! MMFFF!" The next one had a more passive (relatively speaking) approach and had simply placed a hand in front of V's babbling mouth in order to silence her. He looked at her, and noticed the same flare of attraction in her violet eyes as the others had. By this time, he was fair well dizzy by all the chatter (as the sailor senshi, no matter from what time are apt to do) and he blinked several times.

"I'm sorry… what?"

"Name's Rei. Sailor Mars. Nice to meet you." Now this Mars-girl has mellowed out a bit. She has always been a little (a little) more serious than the others (perhaps except for Ami) and she smiled. Trunks bit his lip, pushing his glasses upwards. Not that he needed them really, they were usually just for show. "Uh… yeah. Nice to meet you too."

"REI! DON'T STEAL **ALL** THE GUYS!" shrieked the rest of them, all of them pouncing on her, and to Trunks' amazement, she fought back like a wildcat, in a cloud of smoke. He slowly but surely began to back away, before all four of them pounced on him… well, six senshi actually, several of the injured ones had joined in.

There was only one thing left for Trunks to do.

"GOHAN!!!!!!!!!! A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE **NICE**!!!!!!!!"

"Right!" he called back, ignoring him. "You know you like it!" And indeed Trunks did, being a guy. Come on, every reader knows much about guys, right? Having the girls fawn all over them is a major ego boost… plus Trunks is buried under a pileup of **girls**. Now… we all know Trunks has a little ecchi side buried in him… and what better excuse than flailing your arms around trying to breathe? (Of course… he wasn't thinking about it at the time… he was too busy **actually** trying to breathe)

Pluto laughed, seating herself rather delicately on an outcropping of stone and crossed her legs. "Now then… Endymion-sama, Small Lady, please sit down as well." The King and the little princess (now dressed in a small blue school uniform) sat down and she faced Gohan. Setsuna seated herself on the grass.

The eight other Outer senshi then approached, and remained standing. They were used to it. "So… uh… what's this all about?"

"It's about Usagi-chan." Gohan bit his lip. "Y'know, given time I think I could fall in love with her…" Pluto raised an eyebrow but nodded, understanding. The Queen had always had that gift. "I know… anyone who knows her long enough usually does… anyone male that is." Endymion coughed and Pluto smiled at the King. "Which is why you are so absurdly jealous of every male servant in the castle, Majesty." Endymion turned away, barely managing a smile. Chibi-Usa sniffed. "I want my mommy."

"Who's the kid's mom?"

"The girl in question."

"Hold on… you don't mean **USAGI**?!" Gohan looked doubly shocked. That kid? Usagi's daughter? And she was **sixteen**, and the kid looked about nine, which would have made Usagi around seven at the time… it didn't work!

"From the future."

"Oh." It made absolutely no sense at all, but hey, if they were stuck in the Twilight Zone, what else could he do? "I see."

"GOHAN! **HELP ME OUT HERE**!!" yelled Trunks, probably being crushed under the Inner senshi pileup. Minako was perfectly fine in simply sitting there. Despite the cute guy meters away, she preferred to work on her own healing abilities.

"We need to ask you something as the… er… prince is a little… beside himself at the moment." Indeed, Mamoru-san was still sitting there where Usagi's body had been… before it had been sucked away by some portal from the Negaverse. He was the most morose, being firstly completely head over heels in love with the woman, and secondly, being able to do absolutely nothing to keep even her body safe from the Negaverse. He was now in the "depths of despair" as Anne [2] would say. 

"Yeah uh, sure. There was this redhead Queen lady… Queen Bee or something like that…"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on there… Queen BERYL?! The psychotic queen that Usagi-chan already kicked her Negaverse behind? **THAT** Queen Beryl?"

"Well she was certainly psychotic… whether she got her ass kicked or not I don't know." Minako's head literally fell into her hands. "This is not happening, this is not happening, I'm just going to wake up and everything will be back to normal…"

"GOHAN!"

"All right, all right. GIRLS!" yelled Minako, with her very loud, very high-pitched (admit it) voice. "GET OFF THE HOT GUY AND GET OVER HERE! BITCH QUEEN BERYL'S BACK AND WE'LL NEED TO BUST THAT REDHEAD'S PLAN BEFORE SHE KILLS US ALL!"

It took two seconds for all of them to assemble and Trunks to be singularly hugged by a victorious Venus. Then, she dragged him towards the meeting, Trunks plowing through the dirt like a worm.

"Now what the hell was that all about Beryl?" asked Rei smoothing her hair (and eyeing the new split ends with narrowed eyes), "You nearly scared us all with that gathering technique."

"TECHNIQUE?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! **Beryl** **is BACK**!!!" Two seconds later, a loud commotion filled with questions, attempted answers, "SHUT UP!" 's, and other vocal messages of the sort. Pluto stayed silent, and if she had had a cup of tea handy, she would have sipped it serenely. It was not her place to get caught up in these things.

~*~*~*~

"Merelu? What is wrong little one?" The little cat almost jumped several feet in the air when she turned to face Naria. "Nothing…"

"You're worried about your friends."

"Yes… I don't want to fight them."

"We'll take care of them. Don't sully your claws with blood of those who trust you." replied Naria.

"Sister!" exclaimed Aeria shocked, "Why shouldn't she fight? She is loyal to us and Lord Folken now… she has to follow orders!"

"She has friends there… and I do not want her to be forever ashamed of killing those who trust in her."

Aeria muttered something under her breath but sighed. "You are right… quite right." She murmured in an entirely different town. She crouched down beside Merelu. "Don't worry little kitten, everything will resolve itself soon."

"Van! Rei-san!" the cloaked figure running towards them surprised them for a moment. The other appeared just behind the first panting, and found a ball of fire awaiting them in the palm of one hand, and a sword, unsheathed in the other's.

Alan pulled off the hood of the cloak. "It's me."

"And me!" added Millerna, pulling off her own and shaking her hair out. "This thing's itchy."

Rei looked rather concerned… "Where's Hitomi?" She would wonder about this new girl later. Alan looked rather shocked. "You mean… you mean she's not with you two?!" he looked almost panicked and Millerna sighed, as any memory of her would've vanished from his mind at the mention of, even as a fresh wave of panic swept over her… it was a big fortress, Hitomi could be anywhere! 

"She's right here, Lord Van." A soft mewl came from behind the red-shirted youth and he whirled in amazement to see Merelu, not the same little cat he'd known all his life, but a cat swathed in white, making her movements seem even less effortless than before. She looked like… "like the Fortified Luck Soldiers." finished Hitomi for him, appearing from behind her. He was amazed to realize that for some strange reason, in a matter of days, Merelu had topped Hitomi in height.

"What are you… what are you…"

"Going anywhere I please? To bring Hitomi back… and that's it." she swiftly turned and began running, and he noticed many more long leaps than short pounces in her gait than she used to. "MERELU!" he yelled, forgetting where he was for a moment and already beginning to run after her when Alan's iron grip enclosed around his arm, jerking him into an abrupt stop.

"What are you doing?!"

"Let her go Van, she has her own decision to make. Don't be so selfish or that foolish!" the younger man, no the boy, looked up in a rage. "You think I'm **selfish** and **foolish** if I don't want to keep Merelu safe from that MONSTER?!"

"She has not been harmed in any way, Van, and you can see it!" 

"You don't know that! I won't believe for one second that was Merelu! It was probably one of those Luck soldiers! They're cats too!" Rei raised an eyebrow at his babbling excuses and looked towards Hitomi. Despite herself, she rolled her eyes. Rei smiled shortly before walking towards Van, stopping a little way away from him and looked him directly as he continue to spout reasons that couldn't be Merelu. 

Delicately, she raised a gloved hand, her slim hand held in the air as if almost to caress his face and he stopped, wondering what on Gaia she was doing. Then with a dainty flick of her wrist…

*SHMACK*

"HEY! What in the name of Atlantis was that for?!" he yelled, rubbing his cheek which was already turning red. For a flick of a wrist, that **hurt**.

"That was to bring you back to your senses." She replied grinning and Hitomi smothered a giggle. Van, with his bruised pride reacted the same as any male… he got mad. "Don't lecture me! I've got to find Merelu!" Rei sighed… this was going nowhere.

"All of you, get your butts back to the Crusade ship, I'll take care of him." By this time, she was forcefully holding back the young man from charging after the cat girl. "What are you going to do?" asked Millerna, half-curious, half-alarmed.

"I'm going to follow you guys, and drag him along… don't worry, I'll beat you in this race." She grinned and make a shooing motion with one hand while gripping Van with the other. "Oh no you don't lover boy, I'm going to make you pay for that kiss… don't sample unless you're willing to buy."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed everyone present. Hitomi especially had a rather strangled look on her face before Rei laughed. "When I find out who made that fate changing machine, they're going to have hell to pay."

"You mean…" Rei looked at everyone with a raised eyebrow. "So it hit hard last time huh? Well, they'd better get their bearings and their planets straight 'cause I'm no Earth chick." She grinned and shooed them off before releasing one iron grip on Van to hold up her hand. When Van saw the bright red light coming from her, he would've yelled in shock had the guards that appeared 'round the corners not done that for him. Mars turned just in time to see them, "Sorry boys, this plane's already lifting off… see ya!" then they were gone. And the guards stood there for a few seconds blinking in shock. Then they turned and ran yelling things along the lines of, "It's the curse of the Mystic Moon!"

"SORCERESS!"

"A WITCH!"

"They disappeared!"

"A meat bun!" [3] And such of the sort.

Van had the curious sensation of floating in a bubble of warm fire… not hot, not scorching, but soothingly warm. In a few seconds, it was over, and he landed, rather unceremoniously on his ass on a very hard floor. "OW!"

"Sorry about that… I'm a little rough on the landings," came the tired voice from a red-suited senshi that had flopped into a chair close to him. He found, when he turned to look at her that she was looking rather drawn and faint. She noticed the question in his eyes and smiled a little, tired smile. "I'm not used to doing that by myself… I'm a little tired." The anger flared up again in Van, "You'd better be tired because you did all that for nothing! I'm going back in there!" Rei sighed, "I don't want to scorch poor Alan's floor so…" She held up an ofuda to her forehead and closed her eyes and as it suddenly straightened of its own accord, her eyes snapped open. And with an "AKURYOU TAISAN!" the slip of paper landed on the back his head. He was paralyzed in a rather uncomfortable position with one foot on the ground, and the other pulled back, stopping him in mid-dash. 

So when the rest of them appeared in the doorway and the ship was making its hasty getaway, they entered to see a frozen Van who had been gagged. (Because the paralysis didn't extend to those of the cheek muscles or the vocal chords, and he had a rather… colorful vocabulary.)

"Um… Van?" asked Hitomi tentatively, poking him inducing a muffled noise to emit from him. "Why is he all… frozen and everything?"

"I didn't want the birdie to fly the coop." returned Rei, as Millerna began examining him from all sides with what she considered a "medical breakthrough" and if not, it soon would be. 

Hesitantly, Hitomi removed the gag from Van's mouth and he exploded. "What the hell is wrong with you people?! You have NO honor! Merelu is trapped in that fortress with my coward of a brother, and you run away!" if he could've moved and run towards the nearest open window, he would've.

But he couldn't and Hitomi contemplated replacing the gag. Rei caught the look and smiled, as did Millerna. Rei gestured, still rather drained. "Hitomi, would you do the honors?" Hitomi smiled… she knew how pig-headed the young King could be… she'd seen more than enough of that side of him back on Earth. "Sure…"

"Good. Oh, and we won't take offense to any shouting… or any other sounds in there, okay?" Rei winked and Hitomi felt her face turn red, lowering her head, so that her bangs hid her face. Rei grinned, "Good! Now… I'll uh, get up and help you drag him if that's what you want…"

"Can we just… unfreeze him?"

"Won't he run away?"

"I don't think so…"

"Will he **fly** away?"

"Maybe…" she admitted and Van seethed. They were talking about him as if he wasn't even there!

Alan sighed… this was getting nowhere. "I'll help. You can rest a little more." He told Rei and she looked rather thankful as she sank back into the chair. As Millerna approached, she gave the princess a weak smile. "Remind me never to try that on my own again."

"You'll probably remember that all on your own." The princess of Asturia flopped down on the ground and disposed of the itchy brown robe that she'd had to endure throughout their escapades in the fortress. 

"So… I've been wondering about something… who are you, really?" asked Millerna. She of course, hadn't been present when Rei had introduced herself, and she'd been quite shocked when she'd noticed a new girl with a skirt even short than Hitomi's.

"My name is Hino Rei… another girl from Earth-um… the Mystic Moon." she curled her lip at the thought of the beautiful blue planet that she'd come to live on being compared to like a simple satellite…

"But you have… you have… power. Power perhaps greater than Hitomi's!"

"Um… I was already like this when I was on Earth… not since birth of course, but since I met my leader."

"Leader?"

"A soldier for peace. And a princess with immeasurable power."

Rei sighed, "I wonder when I'll get to see them again… who are you by the way?"

"Me? I'm Millerna, a princess that is too tomboyish for her own good." she frowned as she realized that, now that she was free, she would be shipped back to Asturia as fast as possible. Again. "You have no idea how much I envy Hitomi, being around Alan all the time." Her face was wistful and rather dreamy.

"Are you the one who's married?"

Millerna's eyes suddenly blurred with tears at the image that appeared in her mind. Her husband, protecting her, killed by a shoulder, being dragged away with no medical attention…

"Maybe not anymore…" she whispered and Rei silently pitied her. "Do you know for sure?"

"No…"

"Why not ask Hitomi?" Millerna sighed, "Because the last time I asked her to do that, she blamed herself for a catastrophe." Rei grimaced, "Yeah, I can see where that would lead to… she's like me, we take too much on our own shoulders."

"I think so."

"I can show you something though…"

"Hmm?"

"We can scan for his soul… I think I can do that, at least. It won't be as easy as Hitomi's card reading, but we can try…"

"How?"

"I'm psychic… and if I drag you along for the ride, we might find him. I have no idea how his psyche feels like."

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Well… you've known him a lot haven't you?"

"Yes…"

"Well then, what feeling do you sense whenever he's near?"

Millerna looked rather thoughtful, "A rock lying in the warm sun… someone I can depend on I think." Rei grinned, "There, perfect! Now let's go…" she grasped Millerna's hand and held her hand up into empty air. To the two of them, it was like a vortex of absolute nothingness and Rei had to struggle against the forces of Chaos to find the right path. Within seconds, they were through and walking a path, marking by red gossamer threads attached to Millerna. "What in the world?" she gasped staring at them, reaching to touch them.

"You should feel which ones they are attached to…" Rei stopped as she noticed a thread that had been severed and was currently floating in the air. "Oh no…" she whispered, positive she knew who it was.

Millerna paled and grasped it, her astral body reeling in shock as a gruesome scene flashed in front of her, and she shuddered despite herself at her husband's repeated wishes that she be happy, that she be safe. And despite herself, she screamed, "**DRYDEN!**" Her scream echoed through the cosmos and the entire universe that they were in shuddered at her grief. She had not known how much she had really cared for him until then. Rei placed a consoling hand on the woman's shoulder as the tears that had been threatening to spill, did.

In a moment, they were back in the Crusade, floating in the middle of some grotto again, and MIllerna collapsed at Rei's feet, sobbing into her lap. Rei looked rather uncomfortable, but for only a moment, a feeling akin to the friendship between herself and the princess of the moon settled on her and she stroked Millerna's hair, trying to at least ease the pain. And that was how Alan found them when he reentered the room, stopping in shock at the sight.

Hitomi was having a slightly harder time as she tried to reason with Van. Brought to his room, she had removed the ofuda from the back of his head and was now physically holding him back from the window. Only the fact that he didn't want to hurt the girl kept him from struggling to violently against her, as the anger slowly drained from him and he collapsed onto the bed.

Hitomi sighed, standing over the bed, "Stop it now." She told him sternly, "you don't look half as cute when you're sulking." She blinked and slapped a hand on her mouth as soon as the words exited her traitorous mouth, and her cheeks turned red. Van immediately stopped struggling. "What?" he asked in a rather amazed voice.

Hitomi hesitated for a moment before going for it. Rei's appearance had affected her own attitude as well. "You heard me."

"I…"

"Now listen, if Merelu decided that she wants to stay there… would you move heaven and hell to drag her back? Because you'll destroy her if you do that Van, please don't." her eyes were welling up with tears again and she brushed them away furious at herself for crying all the time. "H-Hitomi…" he looked awed at her sudden outburst.

"What?" she sniffled, "You must've known that."

"Hitomi…" suddenly, she found herself crushed against his chest, his lips on hers, and his arms around her waist. Her eyes widened, before, as he continued kissing her, they felt heavier than anything, and she let them close as her own hands reached up to his neck to find a hold on him. She had no idea where this had come from… but it sure as hell felt right!

There was no more conversation from that corner of the room, but a variety of other sounds that accompany a pair making out.

It was the next morning already. Millerna had been in a terrible state and only the combined forces of Rei and Alan could help her to her bed. Alan had looked rather shocked at the news of Dryden's death, and he had to 'think' somewhere on the ship… slicing open blocks of wood to take out his anger, was more like it. Rei had helped Millerna undress, handing her a nightgown from Hitomi's store (that duffel bag she'd brought held a lot more than it looked) and helped her into it. Rei remembered smiling, "It's all right… I'm sure it'll be better in the morning." Millerna had nodded rather bleakly and turned away from her, trying at least to hide her tearstained face from a friend.

Well, it was morning, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the birds were singing, and Rei woke to find it closer to a pit in Hell rather than the paradise it was. "**Iiiiiiieeeeeeeee!!!!**" her shriek could be heard throughout the entire Crusade as people rushed to the door to see what was the matter. They found her floating in the air, a glow of red aura spilling from her as a feeling of absolute desolation filled her. "**USAGI-CHAN!**" No… it just couldn't be… the red glow faded and she dropped like a stone towards the floor, her eyes rather lifeless with despair.

A few inches away from the ground, Alan's arms closed around her and set her own her feet, steadying her as much as he could. It couldn't be true… it just couldn't. Usagi couldn't die… it was impossible! She was their princess! But Pluto was coming for her… how she did not know, and she had to be ready. Was it possible to bring her back? She would sacrifice everything for that girl to be alive again. She wrenched out the small communicator she'd been given and pressing several buttons (to the amazement of the crowd that she was vehemently ignoring) the static disappeared to be replaced by a small image of Setsuna. "What the hell happened?!" she yelled, anger overcoming the sorrow. "WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?!"

"She tried to battle Queen Beryl again by herself… and she killed her. Beryl killed her." Setsuna looked still too much in shock to be able to say much more.

"HOW DARE YOU! You people were supposed to protect her while I'm stuck here! You were supposed to keep her safe!" Setsuna looked pained, even though she knew the heated words were nothing more than Rei's attempt to ease her own pain.

"The princess is dead, Rei. And the only way we can bring her back is to find her soul and restore her. That means we have to delve into the Crystal created of magic far beyond our time, and find her. There is only a slim chance that we can ever find her, and return safely. Beryl will try everything she can to stop us, and with her armies of demons…"

Rei breathed outwards as she finally said slowly, "Gather all the senshi and attend to their injuries, heal them as much as possible, and gather the warriors that can help us… all who might be able to kill those youma. Then come and get me if possible."

Setsuna nodded curtly and signed off, as Rei turned off the fuzzy screen. "Well, I'm going." She told the crowd, which she finally acknowledged. "The only person I ever need to fight for is dead, and in a last battle, we will all either die, or we somehow find her and bring her back. I guess… I'll be saying good-bye soon enough… I've bothered you all too much as it is."

"Is there any way we can come with you?" asked a rather soft voice from the doorway. They all turned to see Millerna standing at the door, leaning against the doorjamb. "You? You want to come?" asked Rei, amazed. "What can you do?"

"You said your friends are injured… someone has to help them… why not me?"

"But princess!" interjected Alan. "You can't go to different worlds and battlefields! You'll be killed!"

"Such faith you have in me," snapped Millerna, and Alan literally backed up a step from her. He'd never known her to get angry like that. Rei bit her lip, "I'll address the question to everyone. Do you want to come and save the world?" The question was quite true… the affects of Usagi's death would penetrate the core of every delicate world built into the cosmos. She was too important to die there, to die then.

It was surprisingly Hitomi who spoke up, "If there's anything you think I can do, Rei, I'll be happy to come and do it." Van, looking as if to say otherwise to Hitomi's offer sighed and said, "I'll come too."

"I will come." It was Alan, and the rest of his crew roared their agreement.

"Yeah! Who wouldn't give up a chance to see another world!" and such and such. [4] Soon enough, all were assembled, and when Pluto appeared, in a cloud of pink, she found herself staring at not only a red-suited senshi, but a crew of people, and two large, hulking machines. "What in the world?" she gasped, staring at them all.

"They're coming with us." Mars told the older soldier firmly, "They want to help." Pluto nodded slowly and joined her hands with Mars'.

"PLUTO ETERNAL POWER!"

"MARS POWER!" an explosion of both red and dark violet exploded into the air from their bodies and encompassed the entire crowd of people. The small Time Key, previously used by Small Lady herself, floating in the circle their arms made. With a roar, the pink clouds appeared again, and they all floated into it, heading for the dimension gap between this world, and the one next to it. The one where Usagi had died at the hands of Queen Beryl, and where the warriors waiting to destroy that evil queen for good were assembled. A fallen Lunarian princess would rise again there, they hoped and wished, and clung to what seemed impossible. But perhaps… a miracle might happen.

~*~*~*~

[1]= This is what Usagi once called Rei in real life… Of course, this particular episode was never filmed because Naoko refused to let her character receive such a title as a 'potty mouth'. Therefore, no mention of this in the manga or anime was ever made… till now. (fictional, fictional… We all know Rei can fly off the handle… being a bloodthirsty lunatic isn't too far down her alley. ;))

[2]= Anne as in Anne of Green Gables.

[3]= Cardcaptor Sakura, the one with the Illusion card… and Tomoyo's version of it. I couldn't resist!

[4]= I resisted it this time! Yes I did! Be proud people, be proud!

End of Chapter. Hey, one more left till the end! I'm thankful actually, this fic was starting to drag along behind the rest of the ones I'm working on. I've got six fics I'm working on, all at one time. Bit off more than I can chew? Yeah, probably. REVIEW ME!


	12. Chapter 11: Battle Royal

(Chapter Eleven)

It was a matter of moments when they all reappeared on solid ground in a bed of long grass. Pluto and Mars were both on guard the moment they set foot on the ground. The usage of the Time Key was dangerous in itself, but the effects were also very visible. Pink clouds and a red sky weren't part of everyday weather patterns, after all.

Thankfully, Pluto had transported them into a clear area, and no armies instantly swarmed them as they dropped lightly to the ground. It was a long march towards their 'base' and it was hard to keep the guymellefs hidden… they weren't like the ones from Zaibach… they had no stealth cloaks. Van had pulled it into a form of a dragon to make it less easy to see, but Alan's was so much more visible from a faraway distance so they moved quickly. Mars was admiring the chain of keys around Pluto's waist. "Nice… when did you get those?"

"Along the years, I found Time Keys that were potentially hazardous and confiscated them. They are only used as a last resort."

"Like with Chibi-Usa?"

"Like with Chibi-Usa." The guardian of time was not prone to talk much, and her future self even less. Mars lapsed into complete silence as all of them trudged along. Finally, when the sun neared the horizon, they made their way into the little 'camp' and found themselves faced with the oddest assortment of people they could possibly see.

As promised, all had been assembled… and when all was said and done, all that was missing were a few megaton air missiles, the FBI, a couple of SWAT teams… but who needs 'em anyway? Gohan alone could blow them all to smithereens. At last, when all were acquainted, they finally began a meeting (kinda sorta) on how to fight Queen Beryl. The queen had stolen the princess, and that came into consideration. It was possible to try and wake her from a distance… but that was even more riskier than being in contact with her body.

Also, they were all very well aware that Queen Beryl had worked out the kinks of inter-dimensional time travel, and had many warriors of many different time periods and worlds in her abundant army. Finally, it was decided that only the sailor senshi should confront her first, and see if there was any way to survive the onslaught. Not a very good plan, but it was all they could do at the moment.

Meanwhile, Beryl was pacing around her new throne. She was well aware of their oncoming attack and was anxious to start the battle. She held the Time Staff in what looked like a death grip, and she stared hard at the red gem on it. It had changed a little bit in color being transfigured by its new mistress and was now a blackish-red and glowed with dark energy. She breathed deeply, more relaxed with the sense of power. She looked over at the crystal in which the princess lay. "Let them come." She finally said to herself, "We'll win anyway."

"KAMEHAMEHA!" the ball of bright blue-white ki erupted from Goku's hands and into the target, disintegrating it as well as the tree behind it. A sign labeled 10 suddenly appeared in Venus' hands as they stared at the poor innocent, dead tree in amazement.

It was a training day, and it seemed rather pathetic to them as the small 'army' continued to 'train'. It was absolutely worthless and they knew it, but there was nothing else they could do. Millerna was assisting the injuries of the inner senshi, which were just about healed. Senshi had amazing healing abilities. Hitomi found herself able to do absolutely nothing until Rei asked her for help in trying to revive their princess. "You have psychic abilities. You could help us reach her." Hitomi hesitated at first. The last time she'd tried to help someone… but then the visage of a smiling face of the queen appeared in her mind's eye again, and she nodded.

After two days of 'heavy training' they were 'ready' to 'attack'. Or in other words, they were **hoping** that they could **manage** with all the monsters Beryl might have on hand. It would **not** be a very fair match. That woman didn't care what havoc she caused in the annals of time as long as she got what she wanted. 

As they headed for the huge dome which was where Beryl was currently residing. "Damn, this is impossible," muttered Gohan under his breath as he stared at the growing wall of Beryl's minions. "Keep your spirits up honey, we'll get through to 'em, don't you worry!" he turned to see Sailor Jupiter in her full glory, with the bandages removed. "Probably… but we've got work to do."

She looked rather grim as she eyed the solid wall of youma. "Don't have to tell me twice," she muttered, "we've got quite a job cut out for us, huh?"

"Yeah."

"By the way… why on Earth are you helping us? This has nothing to do with you directly… don't think that was meant in a rude way." She added hastily, in case he was insulted.

"'Cause Usagi's a friend. And I don't like losing any of my friends to slime like that queen."

"Great answer. We love ya for it!" he blinked at her for a second before the wave of youma was upon them and he had his hands full just keeping away from jaws, and drooling mouths.

"SHABON SPRAY!"

"FIRE SOUL!"

"THUNDER CRASH!"

"CRESCENT BEAM!"

"WORLD SHAKING!"

"DEEP SUBMERGING!"

"DEAD SCREAM."

"SILENCE GLAIVE APPLY!" 

The multi-colored blasts erupted everywhere, as entrails of every color flew in every direction possible. The pretty sailor suited senshi were not amused to find slimy blue streaks in blonde hair. Or brown hair, or green hair, or aqua hair… In the corner of their eyes, they could see the blue ki blasts everywhere. When a saiyan **begged** everyone came, apparently. Bulma's creations were putting up a fabulous fight, and the rest of them… well, let's just say Beryl's staff had a good workout zapping more monsters up to keep them at bay.

Deep inside the fortress the body of Usagi shuddered and her crystal in her hand began to regain a little of its luminosity. Not enough to show to the guards that were staring at her through their great black armor that it was regaining strength from the determination of its mistress's friends… _My friends… come find me…_

Beryl herself was standing on a platform inside the fortress and she was staring at the glowing black-red orb. Though she had mastered inter-dimensional travel and transportation, she still did not know how to harness its full power and it was alarmed her slightly. She was not a master but even she could know how much power was held within the small black-red orb. A splintering crash sounded at her left and she knew it was time. They'd broken through. 

"Go! All of you, I have taken you from worlds unimaginable. Fight for the Dark world that you all belong to. GO!" the monsters surged towards the small band of warriors that were bravely gaining ground towards her, enough to blast a hole in her wall.

"What are they?!" gasped Mercury as she turned into ice several more small, weak but bothersome monsters. They were all becoming rather tired, but they persisted in continuing their rush towards Beryl's fortress. 

The saiyans however were still going strong. They were super inhuman killing machines after all. After all, better physique and better training made them superb. But then, Sailor senshi cannot learn very well from a pair of cats. The guymellefs, they realized hadn't been a waste of effort after all. Every step killed a few more, even though they had to be careful not to squash any of their own people. 

The smaller monsters soon enough disappeared from the battlefield completely, and they were standing alone amongst the corpses littering the battlefield. And the new ones that had joined in after the first wave were even worse. They stared at the incredible fighting machines that Beryl had encountered and enslaved throughout her 'visits' into other worlds. There, they could see enemies that they had fought in the past. Beryl had apparently visited Hell as well. 

The battle immediately surged in Beryl's favor as their previous encounters with enemies came across them again in a grisly state of déjà vu. Mars decapitated a monster with a sword she'd swiped from one of them and absorbed the shock when metal hit bone and splintered beneath her hand. She had a firm grip on Hitomi, and Prince Endymion wasn't that far behind. 

Utilizing Prince Endymion's unique way of sneaking into places, they were able to get in without detection from inside. It took a while because his ability to sneak in did not carry to finding his way. It took the combined efforts of Hitomi and Rei's psychic power and a little help from Mamoru's link to Usagi, they found there way into the guard room. Keeping the guards silent was a little more difficult, but with combined efforts, they got through them quickly and efficiently.

There she was, trapped in a crystal like the Neo-Queen had been in the future… would the same happen in the past? Rei walked up to the crystal, laying a hand on the hard, clear surface. "Usagi-chan… oh, you're such a baka… what did you have to go and get yourself killed for?" she whispered softly, the normal insulting sting she slipped in the words not present. "Usagi-chan…" Hitomi watched as the prince collapsed to his knees in front of the crystal, his hand reaching for the face, eyes closed behind the hardness of the clear crystal. "Chiba-san. Rei-san. Get up, we have work to do."
    
    Rei looked up at her friend in surprise. Never had she heard Hitomi's quiet voice ring with such determination. It sounded almost steely. "You know what we have to do. We have to hurry." She was right. Every second was a second time for Usagi's soul to be wrenched further away from her body.

"How do we do it?" asked Rei suddenly. She had never been experienced in her psychic power, and she didn't have a clue how limited it was. What if she didn't have enough? The crystal in Usagi's hand sparked and flashed deep within itself, the image of Queen Serenity appearing in it.

__

*Show her the way, Hitomi… show my daughter the way back…* Rei looked at the crystal in amazement. "Serenity-sama?!" she gasped, quite forgetting they were in the middle of an enemy fortress, and anyone might hear her. She didn't even know who the woman was, she'd never seen her before in her life. But the shocking similarity between her and the woman that the blonde inside the crystal would become, was uncanny. This was her mother.

__

*Save her, Child of Fate. Save my daughter* 

"How?" whispered Hitomi, staring at the crystal in the girl's hand where the image was. _*Call to her. Walk through the paths of the Ghost Roads, find her before she reaches the river. She cannot see Charon, she must not touch the black water of the river!*_

"You mean… we have to walk through the roads of Death." Hitomi felt oddly calm, even though she knew well enough that it was an impossible idea, an impossible hope. "**What**?!" exclaimed Rei as she stared at Hitomi. The girl was the only one they could hear, they couldn't hear Queen Serenity's voice at all.

"We're going on the Ghost Roads. We need to find her before she reaches the river Styx. IF she does…" They knew the ending that would take place… she would be past help.

"Then we have to find her!" Rei grasped Hitomi's hand and Prince Endymion's. In her other hand, Hitomi wrapped her hand around her pendant, feeling a sort of… beating rhythm in it, like the heart of a dragon.

This time, the flight through space was frightening. They could hardly control their destination, and only the power of a queen desperate for her daughter to live kept them from hurling themselves directly into the depths of Hell itself.

The threesome found themselves flung onto a long, pebbly road, the small stones cutting into them at their sudden landing. Standing, Rei looked up and around them, almost shuddering in horror. These were the Ghost Roads all right… and on each side, there were the tortured souls of the dead that simply refused to accept that they were dead and move on. Hands reached out for them, most of them with flesh half rotten off their bones, skin gray and blackened, and the feel of all those hands begging them to bring them back, made Rei hang close to panicking.

"Ignore them." ordered Hitomi, standing up and continuing to walk, or wade, which would be better put, through the crowds of the dead. None of them dared do much more than lean across the edges of the pathway, none dared to actually set foot on them. "Keep an eye out for your princess. Prince, now is the time to use that bond of yours."

"Bond?" the prince looked rather sick as the dead and rotting corpses and tortured souls continued to cry and wail plaintively at them, making him shudder violently.

"You yourself have admitted you've always had a special tie to the Princess. Now is the time to find her before the River does." He closed his eyes, his face scrunched up in the effort to ignore the souls around them, to imagine away the darkness and the smell of decay. His eyes snapped open. "She's not far from here… I think we need to hurry."

"And hurry we will." Hitomi's voice was not her own as she held up the red pendent she was holding. It shone in a steady crimson glow that surrounded them. The corpses cowered away from the light, shrinking back towards the darkness. "Let's go." She went off in a sprint, a slow one for her, in order to still be able to keep a high-heeled Rei and Prince in the range of the red glow.

"There!"

"Where?"

"There!" this time Tuxedo Kamen pointed with one gloved finger, which the other two quickly followed towards a figure in the distance. Rei's breath caught in her throat, "No… that's not her. It can't be her."

It certainly did not look like Usagi. Never had her face been so pale or thin. Her bare feet seemed not to touch the floor, and she was clothed in a white shift that fell to her ankles. Her long hair was undone and fell messily to her feet. But all of her was stained with so much blood it was ghastly.

"Usako…" whispered Tuxedo Kamen, beginning to run, never noticing the rotted hands, arms, and skulls he was crushing in his rush to get to her. "USAKO!" he yelled, increasing his speed running for the darkness.

"YOU FOOL!" yelled Hitomi as she sprinted to catch up, her legs a blur as she seemed to fly over everything in her way. "Keep to the light!" Rei had a hard enough time catching up. It was with a flying tackle that she was actually able to catch him. "Stay close! We're in the Ghost Roads you idiot, you don't know what might be here."

"We get your princess out of here. Quickly. We don't have much time."

She was heading for the River. They all realized this at the exact same moment and flew to their feet, running as fast as they could. Hitomi's light guiding them as they ran with all they had. Finally reaching her, Tuxedo Kamen made to grab her wrist. "Usako!" she seemed not to hear him as she made her way steadily. The man found to his horror that he'd slipped through the ghostly image, and all that was left on his glove was a bright stain of dripping blood.
    
    The River! She had already seen it! Rei keened like a banshee [1] for her princess as she literally fell to her knees. "Get up!" yelled Hitomi, wrenching her to her feet. "Now is not the time to cry over it. We have to follow her. Move it!" she shoved Tuxedo Kamen forward. Mars looked at her in shock. This was not Hitomi, she had always been more shy of this, and less forceful. A lot less forceful. Who was she? "MOVE IT!"

She ordered herself to move as they ran for the River, seeing in horror all the souls who were begging to be let on the boat. "YOU HAVEN'T BEEN BURIED YET!" Charon, the grisly figure that rowed the boat back and forth between the sides of the river, bellowed over and over as they tore at the sides of the boat, making it rock horrifyingly. They darted forward as Usagi stepped in. Charon looked dubious, but apparently the crystal was enough of a 'burial place' for him and he dipped her oar in the River…

"WAIT!" Rei made a flying leap towards it, but as if some invisible wall was on it, she was thrown backwards a few feet. "Fool! You're still alive! Get out of here quickly and do not return until you are fit to go to Hades or Elysium!" 

"PRINCESS!" Hitomi's voice came through. Usagi barely started, but her eyes shifted. "Princess, you are not supposed to die so soon. The Fates have not decreed it! I, the Child of Fate **demand** that you return to the Upper World! It is not your time!"

Charon looked at the girl in track pants in amazement. "You? Child of Fate?"

"Yes. I demand that we see King Hades and Queen Persephone."

"What is your proof?" he asked, still suspicious.

Hitomi's eyes flashed dangerously. "Proof?" she asked in a low voice. She held up the glowing red pendant from the thin chain on her neck. "Is this not enough proof for you, Charon? Let us on!"

What had been an invisible wall between them seemed to separate. "Hurry!" he ordered, the other souls clamoring to pass through and swamp the boat. It was only with the help of a blaze of fire that did not kill them, but stunned them partially, that the three were able to pass through.

"I can only let you across. You will have to face Cerberus on your own."

"I trust we are more than a match for a puppy like him." commented Hitomi offhandedly. Usagi, still blank-faced seemed unable to see anything. She didn't notice at all Tuxedo Kamen trying repeatedly to reach her from wherever her mind was.

It was only until when they reached the other side of the river and Usagi was drifting again, did they find out what Hitomi meant by a 'puppy'. A grisly, growling, snarling, drooling THREE-HEADED dog with huge teeth. Three pairs of huge teeth in fact. [2]

"Hitomi, what do you plan on **doing**?!" yelled Mars, jumping away when one wayward head snapped at her ankles. "We pass him." Hitomi threw something at the ground in front of it. Within seconds, the three heads were fighting over what she'd dropped, tearing it to shreds and devouring it. In moments, it lay still. "Did you just poison that thing?" asked Rei amazed. And a little nervous as well.

For once since they'd entered Queen Beryl's 'fortress' did she act more like her old self, "Who me? Nah, that thing was drugged." She continued on. At this point, Rei couldn't resist whispering to Tuxedo Kamen, "And where she gets these things from is beyond me."

Apparently it was beyond the masked man to hear her either. His eyes were fixed completely on Usagi's distant, transparent form. She somehow still had the courage, now that no grisly hands were grasping at her, to wonder how this guy could keep away from her for so long if he loved her this badly! _How come I can't find a guy like that? He was perfect when he was going out with me, and then he had to find out his wonderful new/old love with my best friend and leave me out in the dirt. Then Yuiichiru…_ she stopped there, when she realized just how badly she was acting. The ex-band member was **extremely** wonderful to her and cared way more than Mamoru ever had. She fixed her mind back on what they were doing.

It was only a few minutes later of walking that they could see a dark throne room, lit dimly by small flaming torches. Usagi stopped directly in front, simply floating and staring distantly, not seeing anything.

There he was, sitting on his throne, a dark figure crowned by a black steel circle around his head. Hades, lord of the Underworld, God of Death. And beside him sat the cold queen Persephone. Mars had heard what had happened to her from her mother. The older queen had played with this woman in her childhood. It seemed impossible to believe that this silently beautiful queen had actually been a sweet girl-child loving of flowers, sunshine, and beauty.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Hades first off. "We want to bring the Princess back." replied Hitomi, her tone equally cool. She hasn't yet fulfilled her destiny. She needs to return and rule a time of peace in the distant future."

"She was killed. That is enough said. The Fates cut her string."

"SIRE! SIRE!" the horrible shrieks of the three old hags that were the fates came running. "Sire! Someone has tampered with the threads! Many were cut suddenly from nowhere. There was only a black staff and a red gem in front of us!"

Hitomi gestured to them, "Do you believe them?"

"How did this happen?" roared Hades, infuriated by what was happening. Who DARED to tamper with destiny? Persephone's marble white arm grasped her husband's. "Listen to his story." she advised, pointing to Tuxedo Kamen. "He has much to tell I think."

Hades started, before sighing and sitting back down on his throne. "Very well then. Speak young man."

"Where can I start?" wondered the masked boy out loud, "I met a princess on the moon three thousand years ago. A demigoddess, daughter of Selene herself. I fell in love. When a queen bent on taking over the universe escaped from her Dark Kingdom and into our universe, she killed us all.

"Only the power of Selene herself, for the sake of her daughter's happiness revived us all, and sent us into her future, our present to live a new life. The Queen was not supposed to escape the power of the Crystal. When she was killed, she was not supposed to come back. My brother was foolish in thinking he could control her and brought her back. She killed my beloved. And I've come with the help of these two to bring her back. I made enough mistakes to know I can't **ever** live without her, in our past, present **or** in the future."

He looked up to see Hades nodding gravely, and tears running down the face of the smooth face of his queen. Persephone… crying?

"My Lord, my Lady. We need our princess back. We were not there to guard her. She should never have used any power beyond her… please. Let us have her back."

For a moment, Hades hesitated. He was remembering a similar scene with a young man in the distant past named Orpheus and his wonderful lyre who'd sung for a young woman he'd loved as well. He'd never gotten her back. He'd died instead. And as during that time, for the first time since, the weeping Persephone begged him to let the young man have his love back. To give them a chance. Hitomi's words clinched it. "Too much rests on her, lord. She is the decision whether our worlds live or fail."

Even the Fates clamored for it, "Give her back! We didn't cut her thread! Bring her back, bring her back!"

Finally, with a great upheaval of breath. Hades nodded. Persephone, unlike before immediately embraced her husband, shocking all present, including her husband. In all the years he'd known her, she had never done anything outright to prove anything. "Go. Go back to your world. We will wait longer for us to meet again."

With one last smile, Hitomi nodded. "Thank you, lord." And with a rush of black wind, they were sent spinning through chaos again. They appeared back in Beryl's fortress, their army already ripping through the third line of defense. The saiyans were a godsend. Rei immediately turned her attention to the crystal. Usagi lay as still as she had before. Her heart dropped. Had it all been for nothing? Slowly, slowly, the paleness turned pinker as the blood in her veins began to flow, her chest rose and fell with soft breaths. And suddenly…

Her eyes opened. And with that, the shattering of the huge crystal that surrounded her was heard even in the middle of the battlefield. The ginzoushou flared into life as she sat up, eyes only on her prince. And it was with a half-crazed, frenzied embrace that he held her in, holding her as if never letting her go again.

"Prince. Princess. We have a fight to finish." Usagi nodded, eyes shifting into something different. She was no teenager. She was a queen.

"We do indeed." Pushing Endymion away, she stood up on her feet. "This ends **today**."

It was with swift, sure footsteps that she entered the 'throne room' that Beryl had created from her own power alone, staring at the black crystal ball before her, watching the battle. "We meet again, Princess." She said, not showing her anger, her shock at seeing her nemesis living and breathing again.

"Not princess. A queen." replied the golden-haired woman. And it was, even though she was trapped in her former teenager's body, she was the queen of Crystal Tokyo, ruler of the Golden Age.

"Forget your foolish plan. You were once consumed by the power of Metallia, she was destroyed. Why are you still doing this?"

"To kill you, you little bitch." fired Queen Beryl, sitting up, black Time Staff in hand. And just at that moment, everyone else that had been in their little 'army' charged in. With Queen Beryl's sudden shift of concentration, for those few crucial minutes, hers had been destroyed. They now watched in mixed horror as the Neo-Queen Serenity faced off against the ex-Queen of the Dark Kingdom, bent on retrieving her kingdom. The cornered lioness is always the most dangerous.

The red blast of light that erupted from Beryl's staff was uncalled for, but not entirely unexpected. What was unexpected was that it was aimed not for the Neo-queen, but her 'cheerleaders'. It was only with a swift movement, almost impossibly fast for human eyes to follow that she was able to block them with her slight form, catching the huge blast in her hands, and flinging it back at the queen. The woman dodged it, letting the blast and her throne explode into millions of flying rock pieces as she did so. Usagi didn't come off scot-free however. The blast had burned her hands brutally and she had to steel herself against the tears that sprung into her eyes at the pain.

"So the little princess still believes she can win against me? I am more powerful than Metallia has ever been… I've died and come back with full power, along with the power of the Garnet Orb that even 'Lady Pluto' never could control!"

Usagi narrowed her eyes as she pulled out her wand, the moon wand. "COSMIC… MOON… **POWER**!!" the blast of pink light that had twice decimated Queen Beryl and sent her to where she'd come from flew towards the auburn-haired queen. Alongside her, everyone else let loose with whatever projectile weapon or power blast they could throw at her.

With a scream, Queen Beryl disappeared in nothingness. Neo-Queen Serenity's hands fell, and she stared, rather confused… it had been a little too easy… what was wrong? Pluto cautiously reached for the Time Staff, but a blast of red energy made her wrench it back. The staff floated in the air for a few moments, and mocking laughter sounded all around them, echoing and re-echoing around the walls of the room. A voice which they knew and hated.

"DID YOU HONESTLY **THINK** YOU COULD KILL ME THAT EASILY, MOON BRAT?! WITH THIS TIME STAFF, I AM **INVINCIBLE**!"

A swirling of dust and air began to build up, a small hurricane that stayed exactly where it was without moving, and which had the focused attention of everyone present. As soon as it all disappeared, there stood Beryl, any wounds she might have received were invisible, if there even were. She smiled, rather evilly it must be said. "WELL, WELL… AREN'T YOU HAPPY TO SEE ME?" she asked rather sarcastically, whipping her hand out and grabbed the Time Staff which glowed at the touch of its mistress. Pluto stared at it. _What is the matter with it? It shouldn't be able to work for someone with such an evil heart devoid of any purity!_

The Neo-Queen's glare was terrifying indeed. "You can never win against me Beryl. You never could, and I swear by my kingdom, you sure as hell never **will**!" the senshi of the present were shocked. This was not their ditzy Usagi, this was the Royal Queen, leader of the Senshi of the Royal Palace. This was what she would become.

"YOU'LL NEVER WIN AGAINST ME!" yelled the queen. Serenity ignored her, she didn't care for idle threats. What was said was enough, there was no need to waste any more breath. Holding the wand, she faced the older woman again. "COSMIC… MOON… **POWER**!"

It would never work. If Beryl was blasted away, she would continue coming back. It seemed a hopeless battle already.

Chibi-Usa couldn't stand it any more. She knew what her mother wanted to do. She'd died once already… would she die again just to save all of them?! "**MOMMY**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A tear escaped from the corner of her eye, sliding down her face, before falling from her chin. As it fell, it seemed to pause in the air, solidifying and growing all in the same split-second. Magically, another ginzoushou appeared in her hands, glowing golden as she looked awed at the many-faceted gemstone.

She held it up, letting it catch the light of a wayward sunbeam that had somehow found its way through the dark clouds and through a window. As she stepped up, her senshi uniform shredded itself, reforming into a white dress, similar to what Princess Usagi had worn the day she had died in the Silver Millennium. Together, mother and daughter held the two precious gems outwards, away from them, one in a wand, the other in a child's hands. The symbols of present and future. "COSMIC… MOON… **POWER**!" This time, everyone else joined in, throwing whatever else they had at the queen, watching relentlessly as she screamed. "NO! I WILL **NOT** DIE! I WON'T GO BACK! I **WON'T**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" her last wail disappeared along with her as the Time Staff was wrenched from her grasp, flying into Pluto's, becoming the light lavender it had been originally.

It was with stunned amazement, that all exited that building, and watched as the sun came out, melting the dead corpses on their 'battlefield' into nothingness. Soon enough, there was nothing more but the seemingly endless beauty of a field of wildflowers and long blades of grass.

~*~*~*~

"We have to go back now, Your Highness." Pluto said, bowing to her Queen. "Yes… I know…" then, as suddenly as she had become the Queen of Crystal Tokyo, she just as suddenly became normal Usagi again. She ran towards her friends, hugging them. "Thanks all of you… I would **never** have survived in this dimension if it weren't for you…"

Gohan turned red and Usagi laughed at him, but not unkindly. "Hey, despite what you think, I'm not the girl for you. A certain black-haired femme is waiting for you to practice your comforting techniques down at the U… you have some explaining to do."

"Yeah… I guess you're right." Usagi smiled, hugging them all again, another time. Luna, slipping between legs was picked up and patted and stroked by (most of) the family and friends of the Sons.

Rei was having a similar discussion with her friends from Gaia. Especially Alan and Millerna. Alan was still trying his damndest not to be attracted to the princess and the princess was feeling melancholy about both Dryden, and Alan's cold shoulder. It took the priestess's shoving of her friend Minako, the reputed Love Goddess the smack some sense in the two. She had done pretty well herself with Van and Hitomi and Minako credited her with that. Rei then basked in the glow of her own accomplishment.

With a smile, both Pluto's raised their staffs high above their heads. "MAY TIME FLOW AS IT ONCE WAS! SEND US ALL BACK TO WHERE WE ARE MEANT TO BE!"

And so, this is how the adventure that melded three worlds together for a little while came around.

The youma that was still standing there when the senshi returned was easily destroyed, and Usagi and Mamoru continued loving each other for as long as forever. This sickness would come to pass… King Endymion had said so. It was sometimes great to have the fringe benefits of being superheroes/heroines.

~*~*~*~

[1] A banshee is a protective being of one family, and when one of their members is about to die, they visit to keen over the dead body, in mourning.

[2] I neither made Cerberus up, nor did I copy it from Harry Potter. This is the original name for the only three-headed dog that guarded Hades, god of the Dead.

So was that okay? Should I be banned from ever using a keyboard? Tell me! Love it? Hate it? I left it open-ended without tying anything down. I mean, truly, they're all young, they probably won't all have just one huge lovefest and vow eternal love for all time to each other. They're still kids! (like me!) And if my boyfriend (when I get one) suddenly gets down on his knees and says he loves me and he'll marry me someday, I'll be struck dumb for a few seconds, then I'll laugh. Then when he starts to storm out embarrassed, I'll probably repeat, just what I've said here! Good plan, ne?

****

REVIEW ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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